Our Divine Source
To please God on a consistent basis,
we must be committed to living
in God's will as recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
Here's Gene to explain:
This Principle emphasizes realigning our attitudes
and our actions with God's will in Scripture.
Here's the text from which that Principle comes--
Ezra chapter 6, verse 18, we read:
They also appointed the priests
by their divisions and the Levites by their groups
to the service of God in Jerusalem,
according to [get this, according] to
what is written in the book of Moses.
They went back to the revealed will of God
and the writings of Moses in the Old Testament.
For us who live under the new covenant,
for us who know Jesus,
we have the whole of Scripture.
We have the Old Testament.
We have the books of Moses.
We have the historical books.
The prophetic books.
But we have the Gospels.
We have the book of Acts.
We have the Epistles.
We have the whole of God's Word to us.
And what we are to do is to realign our attitudes,
our actions with God's will in Scripture.
That's our divine source.
And that's why 2nd Timothy 3,
verses 16 and 17 are so powerful:
All Scripture...
From Genesis to Revelation.
...All Scripture is inspired by God
[and] is profitable for teaching, for rebuking,
for correcting, for training in righteousness,
[Why?] so [that] the man of God
[the woman of God] may be complete,
equipped for every [every] good work.
We need to go back to the Scriptures.
And so the question for application:
What are some disciplines
we can develop that will help us become more
exposed to the written word of God?
Well I think one of the things that is so vital
is regular study of Scripture together--
where we have accountability.
You know, it's rather recent that we
have the whole of the Bible.
That's, you know, within the last 50, 60, 70 years
that we've had this great privilege of
having the Scriptures in our hands.
And so consequently, one of the ways in which
people realign their thinking
with Scripture was in group study.
Reading and listening to a letter that
was written by Paul to the church of Ephesus.
Or the letter that was written to the
Colossians or the Corinthians.
They didn't have opportunity to sit down
and read the Bible personally as we do.
Though that is certainly a very, very
important discipline.
Since we have it. To whom God gives much,
He expects much.
So we have that wonderful privilege.
But there's something about group study--
that is accountability.
There's an accountability there.
Accountability to be there,
to be consistent, to interact,
to respond, and to apply God's Word in our lives.
We need that accountability.
But we also have the wonderful privilege
to have Bibles that we can read
and study on our own.
And that's one reason why I'm so excited
about this Principles to Live By Study Bible
that we've been involved in.
And this process that we've gone
through for a number of years.
To be able to put the Word of God into the
hands of people with Principles to Live By
that can be applied in our lives.
To make the Bible come alive in
our lives from day to day.
That's been great motivation for me
in the work that I've done in
researching and writing
and teaching all of these Principles.
And I'm so glad you're involved in
that study with us.
It's the Word of God.
And so the Principle reads:
To please God on a consistent basis,
we must be committed to living in
God's will as recorded in the Holy Scriptures.