Meet Moses

It is SO important we learn, love and live The Truth: the Word of God. So many Christians survive on a diet of low-grade, half-digested interpretation from other Christians and never really dig into the Bible first hand. Many, many Christians have died over the years so you and I are free to hold a complete, accurately translated Bible in our hands right now. How many of us squander this glorious freedom by leaving the Bible on a shelf and the television on!

Having read through the Bible several times, using different translations over many years I felt the Lord direct my study in a different direction in 2008. I wanted to dig deeper into the wonderful truths of the Bible by going through each book with a good quality commentary and developing my understanding and revelation. I'm not simply feeding off someone else's revelation; instead I'm increasing my knowledge and using other's views to let the Holy Spirit spark thoughts in my own mind.

I started off in Genesis then went to Matthew and now after four months of expository study, my time in Exodus is drawing to an end. I have loved it! At times I have picked up historical, cultural and linguistic insights which I would never have known or understood had I not been using a solid, Bible-honouring commentary which digs deeper into the glorious truths contained therein. By approaching the Bible in this way, I've got to know the central character in the Book of Exodus: Moses. ENERGY have heard alot about him in recent months and our trip to Croyde at the end of April will be focusing on his life and what we can learn from him as Christians in 2009.

I've seen Moses' ups and downs, his successes and his failures. I've seen how he handled crisis after crisis and how he had a hunger for a deep intimate walk with God which superceded everything and everyone else. I've walked through his life by living his life through the pages of Exodus and the revelation God has given me in so doing has been a rich source of comfort, support and challenge. I won't go into everything I've learnt as this blog is already too long but watch this space!

Studying books in this way is not a theological, dead, boring exercise. It's about taking the Canon of Scripture (i.e. the written 66 books you hold in your hand when you pick up a complete Bible) and letting the Holy Spirit take these words and apply them to your life in a fresh, dynamic way. The Canon of Scripture is closed. You can't add any more Books to it, no matter what The Cults say! However, the interpretation of this awesome Bible is not closed because the Holy Spirit will take God's Word (translated as logos in the Greek e.g Hebrews 4:12) and speak to Jesus' followers, leading them into all truth (John 16:13), providing them with the daily word Jesus spoke of in Matthew 4:4 (where 'word' translates the Greek rhema).

Augustine, Calvin, Luther and more recently C.S. Lewis, Stott, R.T. Kendall, Driscoll and others offer their interpretations of Scripture. Don't confuse their views with Scripture. As long as you are in-line with the core teachings of the Bible (for example, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and so on) then the Holy Spirit can lead you into the most profound revelations which will feed your soul and those around you. Understanding the Bible is not for the few, it's the many. It helps to be 'trained' to handle the Scriptures well, especially those who feel a call to preach, teach or lead a Church but I would suggest that so much theological training is liberal, humanistic or lacking in the Holy Spirit that you'd be best to save your time and money!

I thank God the Holy Spirit has lead my reading and study, spoken to me and taught me so much from the life of Moses. I look forward to more! Sorry, this has been a long entry again. I get a bit carried away sometimes!