A God-Breathed Book

In the beginning, there was nothing. No things. A void, not even time. Then God spoke. And out of his mouth flung galaxies at the speed of light. Black holes. Supernovas. He breathed our universe into existence.

And on the sixth day, standing on planet earth, He knelt down and took a handful of dirt in His hand. A clump of mud. Couldn’t do anything on its own.     But then, God breathed, and suddenly that dirt took on a form, and the three members of the Trinity turned to one another and said, “Let’s make it in our image.”

So they did.

Ecclesiastes 3 says God set eternity in our hearts, which meant for the rest of time, we, humans, would have the capacity to ponder, to dream, to reach for something beyond ourselves. All because God breathed into a pile of dirt.

So we were created to reach, but what did God want us to reach towards? What could satisfy that hunger we had within us?    John 1, we’re pointed back to that moment of Creation as John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Verse 14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

In Jesus, we have walking, talking Truth: The living, visible, love of God. Remember that moment Pilate turns to Jesus, feeling scared and confused and alone and with defeat, Pilate asks, “Quid est veritas?” “What is truth?”         And Jesus says, “Hi, I'm truth, nice to meet you.”

Pilate could have reached out and physically touched the face of God. But what about after Jesus ascended, what about us? Sure, people wrote down their experiences with Jesus. But that could just be words on a piece of paper. Flat. Tiny voices lost in the noise of culture.

But then God breathed, and the Bible became living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrows, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

In other words, the Bible is not your ordinary book.You don't just read the Bible, the Bible reads you. And the same power that God used to create the universe can be found in the words of Scripture.          Why? So we might reach out and touch the face of God. So when sin pulls us further away from God’s holy and perfect presence, we have a lifeline, sent by God to rescue us. So He can bring us close and continue His art of Creation. By re-creating us for His kingdom.