What’s so significant about the Bible?
Why is the Bible truly one of God’s greatest miracles in the world today? For the next few posts I want to be sharing my perceptions about this.
Let me start with a story. You may remember – or remember having heard about – a horrific incident which happened in 1979. It was right after the Shah of Iran was overthrown by radical Muslim clerics. (The same radical group still in power there today).
Thousands of radicals screaming, “Death to America,” stormed the American Embassy and took 66 Americans hostage – and held them captive for 14 months. We are talking about U.S. government officials being taken captive and held by this evil regime. It was unbelievable.
Jimmy Carter was president at the time, and it was the greatest embarrassment of his presidency as he was totally ineffective in trying to obtain their release. In fact, when President Carter directed an attempt to rescue the people, 8 American servicemen died in the effort, without obtaining their release. The mission was a dismal failure.
The United States was humiliated – and shocked at the treatment of their officials and the inability to find a solution. The release of these people didn’t come until Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. That very day, they were released.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
1979 was also the year when I totally committed my life to Jesus and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. My life had been changed forever -and I had begun communicating with the Lord in a new and vibrant way. One of those major means of communication had centered around the Bible. I just couldn’t get enough of reading and meditating on His Word.
That was the setting when in early January, 1981, just as I was drifting off to sleep, the Lord awoke me with a question. What if you could send a coded message to the hostages in Iran with a perfect plan of escape?
That question woke me up, and I knew that it was from the Lord, but it seemed like a strange query, since there was no way that I could ever bring that to pass. But that wasn’t God’s point. As the Holy Spirit revealed the rest of what He wanted to say, I sat up in bed and listened. It was one of the most enlightening words I had ever heard.
That’s what I have done with My Word. The whole world is being held captive by Satan, and My Word is a coded message to bring deliverance to all who will read it and receive it.
He went on: What if you sent the message and the hostages didn’t recognize it for what it was? What if they tossed it aside and didn’t even bother to read it?
By this time, I was wide awake. I went into the den and sat down, holding my Bible close to my heart, almost trembling with awe at this new perception which I had received.
I recognized that this Bible I was holding was truly one of God’s greatest miracles of all time. It is one of His greatest miracles in the world today.
You see, I had not always had such a reverence for His Word. When I had studied the Bible during my college years, I had adhered to the idea that men had written the Bible, so it should be taken as just men’s ideas. I had even been taught by one professor that there were many myths in the Bible, and they were not to be believed.
I had wanted to think of myself as a scholar, so I fell for such garbage, and had taken a turn away from my roots of Christianity. (A turn which caused a lot of hardship and heartbreak before I came back to the Lord).
But now I had the “Decoder.” The Holy Spirit. The very Spirit of God living on the inside of me, and now I could see what He was showing me. I could hear what He was saying to me. Now I knew that the Bible was truly God-breathed; His very voice.
As I read the scriptures, understanding would seem to leap off the pages of His miraculous book. The Word had been ordained by Him, indeed, and its meaning was becoming clearer by the day. For the first time in my life I was truly hearing from my Creator in a recognizable way.
It’s been several decades since that memorable time in my life, but when I recall those moments they are as vivid as if they had happened yesterday.
Since that time I have been on a mission to direct people to God’s Word. I have wanted to help others to understand just what it is – and why it is so important to them, just as it is to me.
So when I ask, why is the Bible so important, the first reason is that it is your and my escape plan to avoid the pitfalls of the devil – and to break free when he has entangled us. As we read, we begin to understand what is from God and what isn’t. We begin to understand “how things work,” things which I call the “rules of the universe.”
So as we honor this message sent to us by our God, and as we read it and allow ourselves to believe it, we will find ourselves stepping out of the darkness which surrounds us, and walking toward the light. Our lives will reflect the new light we receive as we continue to walk this path.
Wisdom, understanding, and revelation are ours in abundance. A life of purpose and adventure unfolds before us as we assimilate the powerful truths in God’s Word.
