Is the Bible True - Everything?

This is a question that many people ask and it's totally valid.  I'm not a theologian, nor have I ever gone to Bible college.  I have a college degree from a secular university in a technical field.  I'm a mom of 2 children, a sister, a daughter, a niece, a friend, was a granddaughter and I play so many other roles.  I've read a lot of books, but maybe not the books you've read.  Some are classics, many are not.

Wasn't there slavery in the Old Testament?  Yes.  Does God condone slavery?  The Bible is a book about God's love for mankind and it's a book filled with stories of real people and Him wanting to bring freedom to all people.  Because we live in a fallen world, a sinful world, there are bad things happening in this world.  Some of these bad things are even committed by people who profess to be Christians.

I believe the whole Bible, from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation.  I do not believe there are mistakes in the message of what the Bible says despite that it's handled via men.  I believe it is the inerrant Word of God. 

Could you pick a verse, a few verses out of the Bible and make it into what you want to say the whole Bible is about?  You could, but without reading the WHOLE Bible and studying it, how can you be certain that that verse is being kept in context?  I could choose ANY book in my possession and just take a sentence here and there and make it mean something different than the intent of the author.  In fact, even in a conversation, without knowing the context, the history, the people speaking, I could take what is being said completely out of context and create something that isn't supposed to be created or ever intended.  That's really quite easy for any of us to do.

How many times on Facebook, or in email or text or IMing that people have misunderstood what someone has said because they didn't understand the history, the people, the situation with which something is being said?  I'm sure this is quite a commonality more than a rarity.

So, what parts of the Bible in the Old Testament not condoned are the same or different in the New Testament?  For example, the Old Testament there is the 10 commandments.  Are those still valid in the New Testament?  If slavery was valid in the OT, is it in the NT?  Why or why not?  If lying wasn't condoned in the OT and slavery was, is lying condoned in the NT as well as slavery?  Those are all valid points.

Do these impact the faith of an educated, intelligent person?  Well, I consider myself that and no, they do not impact my faith as some may think it should.  That's alright.  I don't know everything there is to know about the Bible or even all that much compared to the wealth that's in the Bible.  I continue to learn and even if I spent a lifetime, it still wouldn't be enough.

As I shared with a friend that asked why did I not demand answers for those things?  I guess those specific things don't nag at me to be answered, but the things that I am concerned with, God is addressing with me.  The faith I put in God can't be measured.

Through these last several years, God has really changed my life from the inside out.  But, it first had to begin with changing me on the inside.  It's been a tumultuous ride. 

Even though I don't understand everything, I do believe that if the Bible says that I should not have sex outside of marriage, that if I go against that, there is a not good consequence in the end.  The end result may not happen for awhile, but the Bible says that our sins do find us out.  I spent many years really in disbelief at one thing or another of the Bible and though I never set out to rationally prove the Bible wrong, my life displayed that.

I've come to learn the past several years that it wasn't the Bible that was wrong, rather it was me that was in the wrong.  Does my heart ever desire to go against what the Bible says is right or wrong?  Yes.  But, God reveals to me and says in His Word that the heart is wicked and deceitful above all things.  It can betray me. 

For so many years, I did it my way.  As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that working for you?"  It's not.  It didn't serve me.  I had no peace.  Yes, I had temporary happiness, but I was delusional.  I was really a house that was like a flimsy deck of cards built on the sand.  A slight breeze just topples and destroys my house. 

So, I am quite clear in terms of my relationships with men.  No, I don't want to have sex on any dates.  No, I don't want to shack up with any man no matter how great he looks, how much money he makes, how much he likes me, how stable his life is.  No, I don't think I'm getting too old.  No, I don't think I'm less marketable because I'm not 20 yrs old or that I have children.  No, I don't need to go out and take a bunch of classes on men to know the signals they are giving me that they are interested or not.

I am very confident that as I really seek God with all my heart, that I give Him my whole devotion, that if one day I get remarried, it will be on God's terms and the man will be God's choice for me.  I can't go wrong there.  The men I allowed in my life were not God's choices for me.  He told me, rather I just argued with Him and tried to prove Him wrong.  Guess what?  He was right.

I am not the master of my own life.  Jesus is.  If that makes a person see me as less intelligent.  Okay.  I'm fine with that.  I'm fine with not being in control of my life.  It's way less stressful, though, when I do get stressed, it's when I attempt to take control and do things my way, instead of God's way.

The Bible is either all true, or none of it is.  It can't be partial, because how do you know which parts are?

Obedience & Faith

As my children and I are reading through the whole Bible out loud, I just want to encourage others to do this also.  There is some power of the Holy Spirit that has been moving with my kids and I as God's Word is spoken aloud.  Though I've read through the Bible several times in my life, it's not had the impact as it now is.  Perhaps years of going through a painful desert wilderness experience is helping me relate to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt.

Though the children of Israel were slaves, at one point in the desert, they thought they would've been better off to continue to be Egyptian slaves.  God had set them free, but there was a journey to the Promised Land.  It was in the desert wilderness that God has had to uproot all those things that kept them in spiritual slavery of the lies of the enemy.

What are some of those?  I was provided for.  Yes, I am a slave to my job, a prisoner to debt, but at least I had a job to pay for the debts.  I at least had a home.  No, I don't like that I can't speak out against the Pharoah, but at least I know that and can keep my mouth shut.  This will do.  This isn't really all THAT bad if you think about it.  Really, who really can live their dreams?  It's not realistic.

The journey from Egypt to the Promised Land wasn't thousands of miles, but most likely a couple hundred miles or less.  I've heard it would've been an 11-day trip by foot, but it took 40 yrs and the generation that came out of Egypt had to be killed off due to their unbelief, complaining, lack of trust.

This leads me to the topic of Faith.  We talk about having enough faith to do something or that a person's faith was great.  What does that mean tangible in someone's life?  From what I have been gathering as we are about 70% through the Bible outloud is that Faith really translates into OBEDIENCE.

God has said in a number of areas in the OT that He values obedience over sacrifice.  Breaking that down more in my analytical mind, I am sometimes pretty darned good with sacrificing, because with sacrifice, there can be some bragging rights, which really is pride standing up.  Obedience requires a laying down and a sense of humility and especially submission, the giving up of your own right.

When you sense in your spirit or intuitively (it's really the Holy Spirit talking with you) that something is right or wrong to do, what do you do?  Ignore it?  That is something I have been so incredibly guilty of doing for a long time, hence, it's resulted in me being in the wilderness for so long.  Those giants continue to haunt and taunt as long as I choose to live in disbelief and disobedience.

So, to increase one's faith, in a nutshell, obey the voice of the Lord.  No questions.  As Nike's infamous slogan, "Just Do It"!