Sosoma Jr
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 7, 2020
- 312
- 281
THE LOGIC OF LOVE.
Love needs communication in order to exist and grow.
Why the Bible?
To love and be loved is the deepest of all our desires. We all know that we are made for faithful relationships. We don't need anyone to tell us that. Our hearts are hungry for connection and a sense of belonging. According to the Bible, there is a simple reason for this. Look at the following two verses to discover why.
"So God created in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).
"And we have known and believed the love that God gas for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16).
Because we are made of God's "image," we are made for giving and receiving LOVE.
Communication is a basic part of love. So it makes sense that a God of self giving love would be a communicator. We would expect that a God of love would naturally want to be known by those He has made. And this is exactly what we find the case to be. Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God in the flesh, got to the heart of this matter:
"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15).
Here we encounter the most incredible thing imaginable. The most powerful Person in the universe, God, doesn't want to control us, but rather befriend us. And He wants to do so by communicating with us. This explains why God has given us a book made of words, also known as the Bible.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible here called "Scripture" makes the bold claim that it is God's way of speaking to us. But remember what Jesus said: friendship is the goal of His words to us. The Bible is not meant to bully our minds and demand forced obedience. The Bible claims, rather, to be the way God shows His love and the way for us to know Him. Regarding human words Jesus said, "Our of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). Likewise, if the Bible is God's word, then we should be able to see God's heart in it. But how can we be confident that the Bible is what it claims to be?
A GOD WHO KNOWS AND CAN BE KNOWN.
There once lived a king who was completely focused on himself. Drunk with his power, all he could think about was how great he was. One day God tapped him on the shoulder by giving him a prophetic dream. This dream revealed get this more than 2,500 years of world history in advance. In the process the proud king was humbled and changed. The story is recorded for us in Daniel 2-4.
In his dream, the king saw an image. It was a man like statue, with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay. As he dreamed, the king saw a stone strike the image at the feet, grind it to powder and become a great mountain. The prophet Daniel, a captive in the old kingdom of Babylon, interpreted the dream for the Babylonian king.
Read and discuss the interpretation of the dream in Daniel 2:36-45.
"This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."
This prophecy was written about 600 years before the time of Christ. The dream showed four kingdoms that would rise and fall one after another, as well as how modern Europe would be formed. It provides convincing proof that the Bible is no ordinary book. It is, in fact, inspired by God. And it is a historical fact that exactly what the dream foretold came to pass: Babylon was overthrown by Medo-Persia, which was overthrow by Greece. Greece was taken over by Rome. And later Rome was divided into the ten main kingdoms of Western Europe. Because the first five parts of the vision were fulfilled, we can know that the final prediction will come to pass as well. "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." (verse 44).
This amazing prophecy bring us face to face with a God knows the future. This fact can only mean that were are face to face with a God who knows us as well. He knows everything we've ever done and will do. He knows all the guilt we feel and every one of our weaknesses and failures. And yet, knowing everything about us, He still loves us and longs to be our friend. Not merely a warm, fuzzy friend who will encourage us to make bad decisions. Instead, He wants to be a true friend who will be dangerous to us our selfishness. It was just such an encounter with God that completely changed Nebuchadnezzar's heart:
"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down." (Daniel 4:37).
"Now God and the king were friends. Bible prophecy invites each of us, as well, into friendship with God. It gives us a logical reason for trusting Him. Jesus explained the purpose of prophecy like this:
" And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come, that when it does come to pass, you may believe." (John 14:29).
The whole point of Bible prophecy is to give us a solid foundation for faith in God. Through it He whispers to us, You can believe in Me! But not only does God know each of us, He also wants us to know Him. Speaking to God the Father, Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You." (John 17:3). In the Greek this word is ginosko. It refers to the intimate kind of knowing we experience in a relationship, not simply to facts and knowledge. Later in this prayer Jesus enlarged the idea by asking the Father for something truly amazing. He asked "that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26). Eternal life or salvation is not just a life that never ends. It's also a specific quality of life that is defined by knowing God as an intimate friend. God wants to be known and can be known. And He has provided for us to know Him through the truths shown in Scripture.
ONE CORE TRUTH.
As we study Scripture we need a direction, something to orient us. In this series of [truth] Link study guides we will discover over and over again that there is one truth that gives meaning to all other truths. It is that "God is love" (1 John 4:16). "God is love" is the one truth that shapes every other truth. Truth is not simply a list of factual topics. It is actually all the pieces coming together to paint a picture of who God is in character. In other words, the core reality of God's character is love. Because of this fact, it follows that all truth is simply a continuing of His love. We can expect, then, that every true doctrine of the Bible reveals some aspect of God's love. We can also be certain that any teaching that will be our standard in the [truth] Link study guides. With "God is love" as our foundation, we have the basic means for working out all truth. Our compass is now set to true north. We know where we're going and what we're looking for as we make our journey through Scripture.
Love needs communication in order to exist and grow.
Why the Bible?
To love and be loved is the deepest of all our desires. We all know that we are made for faithful relationships. We don't need anyone to tell us that. Our hearts are hungry for connection and a sense of belonging. According to the Bible, there is a simple reason for this. Look at the following two verses to discover why.
"So God created in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).
"And we have known and believed the love that God gas for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16).
Because we are made of God's "image," we are made for giving and receiving LOVE.
Communication is a basic part of love. So it makes sense that a God of self giving love would be a communicator. We would expect that a God of love would naturally want to be known by those He has made. And this is exactly what we find the case to be. Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God in the flesh, got to the heart of this matter:
"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15).
Here we encounter the most incredible thing imaginable. The most powerful Person in the universe, God, doesn't want to control us, but rather befriend us. And He wants to do so by communicating with us. This explains why God has given us a book made of words, also known as the Bible.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible here called "Scripture" makes the bold claim that it is God's way of speaking to us. But remember what Jesus said: friendship is the goal of His words to us. The Bible is not meant to bully our minds and demand forced obedience. The Bible claims, rather, to be the way God shows His love and the way for us to know Him. Regarding human words Jesus said, "Our of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). Likewise, if the Bible is God's word, then we should be able to see God's heart in it. But how can we be confident that the Bible is what it claims to be?
A GOD WHO KNOWS AND CAN BE KNOWN.
There once lived a king who was completely focused on himself. Drunk with his power, all he could think about was how great he was. One day God tapped him on the shoulder by giving him a prophetic dream. This dream revealed get this more than 2,500 years of world history in advance. In the process the proud king was humbled and changed. The story is recorded for us in Daniel 2-4.
In his dream, the king saw an image. It was a man like statue, with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay. As he dreamed, the king saw a stone strike the image at the feet, grind it to powder and become a great mountain. The prophet Daniel, a captive in the old kingdom of Babylon, interpreted the dream for the Babylonian king.
Read and discuss the interpretation of the dream in Daniel 2:36-45.
"This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure."
This prophecy was written about 600 years before the time of Christ. The dream showed four kingdoms that would rise and fall one after another, as well as how modern Europe would be formed. It provides convincing proof that the Bible is no ordinary book. It is, in fact, inspired by God. And it is a historical fact that exactly what the dream foretold came to pass: Babylon was overthrown by Medo-Persia, which was overthrow by Greece. Greece was taken over by Rome. And later Rome was divided into the ten main kingdoms of Western Europe. Because the first five parts of the vision were fulfilled, we can know that the final prediction will come to pass as well. "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." (verse 44).
This amazing prophecy bring us face to face with a God knows the future. This fact can only mean that were are face to face with a God who knows us as well. He knows everything we've ever done and will do. He knows all the guilt we feel and every one of our weaknesses and failures. And yet, knowing everything about us, He still loves us and longs to be our friend. Not merely a warm, fuzzy friend who will encourage us to make bad decisions. Instead, He wants to be a true friend who will be dangerous to us our selfishness. It was just such an encounter with God that completely changed Nebuchadnezzar's heart:
"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down." (Daniel 4:37).
"Now God and the king were friends. Bible prophecy invites each of us, as well, into friendship with God. It gives us a logical reason for trusting Him. Jesus explained the purpose of prophecy like this:
" And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come, that when it does come to pass, you may believe." (John 14:29).
The whole point of Bible prophecy is to give us a solid foundation for faith in God. Through it He whispers to us, You can believe in Me! But not only does God know each of us, He also wants us to know Him. Speaking to God the Father, Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they may know You." (John 17:3). In the Greek this word is ginosko. It refers to the intimate kind of knowing we experience in a relationship, not simply to facts and knowledge. Later in this prayer Jesus enlarged the idea by asking the Father for something truly amazing. He asked "that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26). Eternal life or salvation is not just a life that never ends. It's also a specific quality of life that is defined by knowing God as an intimate friend. God wants to be known and can be known. And He has provided for us to know Him through the truths shown in Scripture.
ONE CORE TRUTH.
As we study Scripture we need a direction, something to orient us. In this series of [truth] Link study guides we will discover over and over again that there is one truth that gives meaning to all other truths. It is that "God is love" (1 John 4:16). "God is love" is the one truth that shapes every other truth. Truth is not simply a list of factual topics. It is actually all the pieces coming together to paint a picture of who God is in character. In other words, the core reality of God's character is love. Because of this fact, it follows that all truth is simply a continuing of His love. We can expect, then, that every true doctrine of the Bible reveals some aspect of God's love. We can also be certain that any teaching that will be our standard in the [truth] Link study guides. With "God is love" as our foundation, we have the basic means for working out all truth. Our compass is now set to true north. We know where we're going and what we're looking for as we make our journey through Scripture.
