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The Bible is like…

Over the years, people have often compared the Bible to a map or an instruction book, because it is something that gives you information and tells you how to get home.

While I understand that, I have two problems with those analogies. First, maps and instruction books are boring! You only use them when you are lost or in trouble and you do not use them every day. Secondly, the Bible never calls itself a “map” or an “instruction book”. It does, however, give us some other, much more useful, pictures.

1. The Bible is a Light. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). Lights are powerful. They allow us to see and understand what is around us and, strangely enough, they give us courage!

My Grandparents used to live about four blocks from our house and the quickest way to get there was to cut through a cemetery. I was never scared of the cemetery in the daytime, but nighttime was a different story. The lack of light made the journey more difficult and much scarier.

2. The Bible is a story. Stories are inspiring and they touch us in ways that other things simply cannot. If you have ever cried during a movie, you know the power of a story.

After crossing the Jordan River on dry ground, the men are commanded to pick up twelve stones from the riverbed and make a monument out of them. Then God says, “In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Joshua 4:6-7). It was important for God’s people to know and pass on the story of how God looked after them.

My point is that the Bible is not a boring, academic book that should only be referred to in times of trouble. Rather, it is a powerful, living, life changing story that gives us light, help and understanding (1 Peter 1:22-23; Hebrews 4:12-13).

If we change the way we think about the Bible, maybe we will read it differently.

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