Sufficient

Currently, I am reading Tim Challies book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and I am enjoying it very much. When I am finished I will attempt to provide a short review of the book, but today I would like to draw a thought out of one of the quotes he has in the book.

While discussing the fact of how the Bible was attacked 30 years ago on the basis of its inerrancy, Challies comments on how the fight for the Bible has now changed to another attack in our present age. He quotes the late James Montgomery Boice on what that current war is, "Inerrancy is not the most critical issue facing the church today. The most serious issue, I believe, is the Bible's sufficiency." Boice, who was one of the leaders against the attack on the Bible's inerrancy years ago, articulates perfectly the severity of the problem.

Now, I don't exactly have a pulse on the heartbeat of the evangelical church of today, but I do know my heart and my own weaknesses. And it is in examining my heart that I am able to agree with Boice.

When I am faced with the various issues of life, how do I react? Most often it is to try and fix the problem. You know, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get it done." Do my actions relay that I believe that the Bible truly has the answer to every problem I face? Are my reactions an indication of what I verbally say, that the Word is the living Truth that applies to every area of my life? How do you react to your everyday issues? Do you answer them with Scripture or are you like me and attempt to work your "me-centered" theology to fix the problem?

Yesterday in church we sang a line from a song that says, "Truths unchanged from the dawn of time, that will echo down from eternity." What good does it do for us to say in our churches, our job, or conversations with our friends that we believe that the Bible is without mistake and then spend our lives applying pop psychology instead of the real Truth? What difference could you and I make for His kingdom if others saw in us that the Bible held the answer to every issue we face? Weird? Yes. Different? Yes. Bizarre to hold onto the ideals of a dusty book instead of applying the Dr. Phil's of the world? Yes. At least to those on the outside looking in, but we are called to be different and weird and to do it so that others can see in us just how incredible Christ in us is.

I like how Sara Groves in her song, "The Word", put into music our need for His Word and how often we put it on the back burner. I, like her, need to "rediscover, all the ground that I have covered."

"I've done every devotional
Been every place emotional
Trying to hear a new word from God
And I think it's very odd,
that while I attempt to help myself
My Bible sits upon my shelf
With every promise I could ever need

People are getting fit for Truth
Like they're buying a new tailored suit
Does it fit across the shoulders
Will it fade when it gets older
We throw ideas that aren't in style
In the Salvation Army pile
And search for something more to meet our needs

I think it's time I rediscover
All the ground that I have covered, like
Seek Ye first (what a verse)
We are pressed but not crushed,
perplexed but don't despair.
We are persecuted but not abandoned
We are no longer slaves
we are daughters and sons,
and when we are weak
we are very strong

And neither death nor life
nor present nor future
nor depth nor height
can keep us from the love of Christ
And the Word I need
is the Word that was
Who put on flesh to dwell with us.
In the beginning....

And the Word was
And the Word is
And the Word will be