Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Wesleyan Quadrilateral (So this is how I determine what I believe to be true or not) The four sources are: • Scripture - The Holy Bi...

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Living Word Of God

The Living Word Of God

The Bible contains . . . 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,176 verses, and 2,930 different characters to learn about. It is packed full of war, dialogue, murder, spies, long distance traveling, foreign conquests, suspense, natural catastrophes, pestilence, plagues, romance, human and animal sacrifices, and supernatural phenomenon’s of all kinds. Not to mention that it covers a time period that spans approximately 10,000 years of human history, was written by 40 generations, and by 40 different authors from every walk of life, including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, and scholars!

Together, they implored numerous amounts of literary devices and genres, ranging from Narratives to didactics, parables to poetry, proverbs to prophetic, Epistles to Psalms. There is a wide assortment of motifs; everything from rags to riches, irony to satire, artistry to drama, tragedy to heroes, epic to realism. Not to mention the predominate focus of death to rebirth. It was written under many different circumstances, such as in times of peace and in times of war. The Bible is an exciting book that demonstrates a wide range of moods and human experiences. Some were written at the climax of exuberant and inexpressible joy, while others were written in perilous depths of despair, sorrow and repentance.

It was written in a variety of situations, such as dungeons, wildernesses, palaces, inside prison walls, on remote islands, in the quiet contentment of living rooms, and in cold dampness of dark caves. It was written in a wide range of geographical places, like Asia, Africa, and many parts of Europe. The Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

It is the most popular book in the world. It is most long lasting, the most owned, the most debated, the most fought over, the most thought about, the most written about, the most controversial, the most attacked, the most divided over, and unfortunately, the least read. Yet, despite hundreds of diverse and controversial subject matters, with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation, a thematic story is unfolded to reveal the redemption of man through Jesus Christ. The Bible is boring if you do not take the time or effort to open it up to read, study, and relate to it. The Bible is our all sufficient guild for faith and practice! We can not live by something we do not know!

Now isn't the number one dominating principle of good Bible Study prayer: Do we not pray for the Holy Spirit assistance? I should think so! There seen, to me, to be a interconnectedness between prayer and Bible Study. We should pray for guidance of the Holy Spirit. We should pray that God would present the truth to us by directing and guiding the your minds to applying good Bible study principles. To guilde your mind to extract the original intended meaning of the content of the Scriptures. We should be praying for the Holy Spirit to open your mind and soften you heart towards the truth of Scripture. We should be Praying for the strength and wisdom to be obedient to what you have discovered. We should be Praying and make Psalm 119:18 your prayer, cry and heartbeat "Open my eyes so that I might see wonderful things in Your Law!"

In Fact, Henri J.M. Nouwen a “Catholic scholar” once stated that being ". . .silent in the presense of our God belongs to the core of all our prayer. . . Contemplative reading of the Holy Scriptures and silent time in the presence of God belongs to closely together. The Word of God draws us into silence; silence makes us attentive to God's Word. The Word of God penetrates through the thick of human verbosity to the silent center of our heart; silence opens in us the space where the Word can be heard. Without reading [or studying] the Word, silence becomes stale, and without silence, the Word loses its re-creative power. The Word leads to silence and silence to the Word. The Word is born in silence, and silence is the deepest response to the Word" (136.).  The Scriptures are the absolute authority for faith, doctrine and life; therefore, all doctrinal, moral, ethical, and epistemic justification for truth must be formulated from sound interpretation of Scripture. Because the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, infallible, divine revelation of God to man, it is the responsibility of every born again Christian to learn, study, and obey the Word of Truth. Again, the Bible as the absolute authority and it was upon this priciple that Luther took his stand when he stated ". . . "Your imperial majesty and lordships demand a simple answer! Here it is plain and unvarnished, unless I am convicted by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or of councils since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifested reasoning, I stand convicted by the Scripture to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by the Word of God, I cannot and will not recant anything, for an act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand, I can do no other, may God help me.

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reach Out: The Three Movements Of The Spiritual Life. (New York,New York: Dubulelay Dell Publicshing Group Inc. 1975)


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