“Sola Scriptura!” Man cannot live by bread alone!
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
Psalm 119:16 “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”
Today I will attempt to explain the importance of the scripture in our lives. The Reformation brought about the Bible being written into the common language of the people. Martin Luther gave the Germans their Bible, William Tyndale made the English Bible accessible to the common laborer and that cost him his life under the reign of Henry the VIII. Almost 100 years later King James took 85% of Tyndale’s work and made the King James Bible.
Jesus after being led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days, He had but one weapon in which to combat Satan. It wasn’t His good looks or His works, He too had to quote the word of God to defeat every emotion and power of the darkside. “IT IS WRITTEN” should be a warning to us all, as we face the everyday temptations of this world and its jargon. It is our source of strength.
The Scripture is more than a magic “jeanie” bottle that we rubbed to get our wishes for the day or cute little promises you pull from a blessing box. We don’t read His word to just meet our need or fill a emotional void in our lives. It becomes our food, our bread and butter so to speak. His word alone guides through culture, cliche’s, and opinions of man. It’s important to take his Word to cleanse our mind, will and emotions. It must be preached in pulpits, taught in Sunday school and read personally. We cannot ignore the work of the Holy Spirit when reading the word of God. The Holy Spirit also will not act independent of Scripture. It is His word that binds the conscience, divides the spirit from the soul and convicts us of our intentions and thoughts. Biblical truth must be taught to nurture and discipline the body of Christ on a daily basis. The ideas of this world are forever breaking upon us and we must counter it with the word of God. I cannot tell you how many times of crisis in my life, God has spoken to me through His Word. It is the anchor of my soul.
Lets read what the Cambridge Evangelical Council has to say about the attitude of the church today. “Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The consequence is that the word “evangelical” has become so inclusive as to have lost its meaning. We face the peril of losing the unity it has taken centuries to achieve. Because of this crisis and because of our love of Christ, his gospel and his church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism. These truths we affirm not because of their role in our traditions, but because we believe that they are central to the Bible.”