APRIL 17, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

APRIL 17 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING: 2 TIMOTHY 2:14-19

God has given us His wonderful truth and His Word in the Bible. God is the author of the Scripture, as He inspired the human writers to pen what He wanted to share with humanity. It is wonderful to see how God did not dictate the Scriptures to those who wrote it as if they were just like court recorders. In each book of the Bible you can see the individual personality of the writers...yet each writer was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what he did...thus the Scripture as a whole is wonderfully knit together, because it all comes by inspiration of God! Since the Scripture comes from God it must be without error...it must be infallible...it must be immutable. God has given us His Word so that we might know His heart and so that we might walk as His people.

We are instructed to study the Scriptures...it is the only way we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work the Lord has for us. Study is both intentional and systematic. We must spend time in the Word, reading and studying with the intent to be taught by the Holy Spirit, the truth that the Lord has for us. The Bible says what it says...in study we are discovering what it says. Be careful of "Bible Studies" that gather and just ask, "What does the Scripture say to you?" Then they go around the room and you get twenty different interpretations of what the Scripture says. The purpose of study is to find out what the Author is saying, and God is the Author of the Bible. Then we need to have a systematic Bible study, meaning we need to study it as a whole not just picking bits and pieces. It would be impossible to know any book if we just opened it here and there and read a few lines. We are to be people of the whole counsel of God. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation comes from not reading and studying the Scripture as a whole. God loves us so much that He gave us His Word so that we could know Him and know about Him. The Word of God is powerful, it can change us. The Word of God is truth, it can equip us. The Word of God is like bread from heaven…it can sustain us.

Please share your thoughts.