The Inspired Word

It is an easy thing to read the Scripture without reading the Scripture.  It is easy to pick up our Bible and see it as something else to read instead of something which has the inherent power to speak the Word of God to us.  To many times our daily reading takes on the nature of one more thing to do on our daily spiritual checklist.  When we finish our devotional time, all the boxes have been checked.  And while this kind of reading can still a means the Spirit uses to break into our lives, it is never the same as picking up the book, holding it reverently, and wondering what God is about to say as we read.     

One of the things we cannot honestly say about the Bible we take down from the shelf is that it is just another book.  It is never just another book.  It is what the Holy Spirit says about it, "All scripture is inspired by God..."  (II Timothy 3:16).  Its purpose is also stated in that verse, "so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient for every good work."  (II Timothy 3:17).  Anyone who belongs to God is one who understands that the Word gives us what we need to know about living a life of faithfulness to the One who has created us.   Living without the Scripture is like life without the instruction manual.    

To consider for a moment what it means that the Scripture is inspired by God may shake some of the trendy notions about the Word which makes us, the reader, the authority when it comes to interpretation instead of the Holy Spirit.  The Scripture is not about what we want God to say to us, but about what God wants to say to us.  We can play all kinds of mental games with it and we can read all kinds of comments designed to support some secular version of a contemporary issue, but it still remains what the Spirit says.  It is the inspired Word of God and if it is inspired, then we put ourselves in spiritual peril if we view it to be any less.  We may not like what God is saying within its pages, but it is what it is.