Value #2 -- The Bible

Working our way through the Waite Park Values.  As I mentioned, we didn't just determine that these will be the values of the church.  Now there are some that we recognize are important, but we haven't emphasized in the past, but for the most part these values are things that we have discovered about who we already are.  They're the things that will help guide us in the future.  We already talked about one value--that Jesus is the center of everything we do.  But where do we learn about Jesus?  This leads to the second value:

1.       We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and serves as our guide for life and ministry. (2 Tim 3:16)

The Bible is our guide for our individual lives as well as corporate life.  It reveals God’s character, points to Jesus and shows what it means to be what God intended.  Though we believe the Bible doesn’t prescribe one particular way of being the church or organizing the church, we strive to order our ministries in line with the Bible.

Last post I mentioned that we don't worship the Bible.  It's true.  The Bible is not meant to be worshiped, however we do believe the Bible is God's special revelation to us in a way that no other writing in the world is.  Let me explain that a moment.

Paul says in Romans 1 that what can be know about God is plain to us because He has made it plain to us. (Rom 1:19-20)  That speaks of general revelation.  The Psalms and various prophets speak of how all of creation shows the glory of God.  That's why we shouldn't be surprised that religions have so many similarities.  We can reason our way to some things about God.

But we can't know everything about God through creation.  That's why the Bible is so important for us.  We don't just want generalities, we want a God who speaks clearly to us, who shows us what life means, how creation works, how human nature works, and most important; who God is.  We believe that God directly inspired the writers of the Bible to give us specific instructions for life and ministry.

Now some people read the Bible like a doctrinal code.  They read it and try to put together propositional truths that somehow give us the knowledge to be able to go to heaven.  Now I do believe doctrine matters.  It's important for us to have an accurate understanding of God and the world.  But I think if that was what God was most concerned about, he would have given us a book of correct theological propositions.  But if we read the Bible on any level, we learn that this is not what we have.

Instead we have history.  We have poetry.  We have teaching.  We have parables.  We have prophecy.  We have laws and maybe even a few propositional truths.  In short, the Bible is a book of life.  It's the history of God and creation and fall and redemption and it promises that one day everything will be restored to the way God intended.

Most of all, the Bible points to Jesus.  The Old Testament looks forward to His coming.  The New Testament proclaims the good news of His coming and gives us instructions on how to live until He comes again.  Because the Bible is our most clear revelation about the character of God and about Jesus, we seek to bring everything we do into line with what the Bible teaches.  It's not an easy task at times.  We always have the temptation to do things our way, but when we do things God's way, we find satisfaction, peace and hope no matter what's happening in the world around us.  That's why the Bible is so important to us.