How Well Do You Know Your Bible con't.

We make statements about living by the Bible, that the Bible is our authority on all areas of life.  We state that we believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, that we believe every word.  However, how many have never read the Bible in its entirety? Of those who make these claims, how many can tell you where to find certain principles in the Bible?  Let's take a short test -- without getting out a concordance or your Bible program on your computer.


1) Where in the Bible do you find the Ten Commandments? (there are more than one possible answer)


2) Who are the main characters found in Genesis?


3) What main Biblical truth did Solomon present?


4) What are the difference in perspectives (themes) in the story of the life of Christ in the four Gospels?


5) What are the main themes of all the books listed as the minor prophets?


6) Where in the Old Testament can you find verses to lead someone to the Lord in salvation?


7) Where do you find in the Old Testament the truth of salvation by grace through faith?


If I where to type out a verse in the Bible without any location reference of book name, chapter, or verse could you find it?  Could you find it in less than a minute without a concordance or computer?


If I told you there were children as young at eight years old that could answer each of those questions without hesitation and find the verse in less than a minute, would you believe me?  You may be wondering how. Or, you may be saying they are just smart kids filled with head knowledge about the Bible.


When working with young children there should be goals set.  A problem arises when the goals are not based upon Biblical principles.  Most church children workers set as their first goal to see each child saved.  Though this sounds good, there is a serious problem with this thought process.  How do we know whether or not a child is saved?  A child answers an invitation, verses are read and a prayer is said;  the workers check off the goal list a child is saved.  This could be a problem if the child was just repeating words or not even sure what they were doing.  Even yet, the child may have times in his or her life where doubts come and struggles whether or not they are saved. We are unable to rightly deal with these issues because we start with the assumption that they are saved.


The goal should be to work with the child until they stand confident in their own salvation without doubt.  When that is accomplished we work with the child to be confident in the Word of God. We need to teach doctrine, not a watered down version of the Bible and its stories. When working with children never worry about putting the lesson on their level. The Bible is already written on a child's level.  Jesus told people that they are to come to Christ as a child. God never told children to grow up and mature so they could understand the Bible to come to Christ. You may need to teach what the definitions of words mean, but never make a Bible story just a story, but a statement of doctrine and truth.


Our Children's Church ministry focuses on teaching the doctrines of the Bible by going through every book teaching main characters and Bible principles in each book. If you take a child who is confident in his or her salvation and then confident in the Word of God, the next stage of life is completely different. The junior high years are seen most times as a roller coaster of ups and downs. The teenage life is very unstable and crazy.  However, for a teen who stands with confidence in salvation and the Bible, the hills are much smaller.


The adult life can be just as crazy.  How well do you know your Bible?  How confident are you in your salvation?  How confident are you with what you know about the Bible?  It will make the hills much smaller.

How Big Is Your God con't.

Throughout my days I have come in contact with many people who have an interesting take on life.  These people, for the most part, see life as a "win some, lose some" mentality.  When they win or have something good happen to them, they make fun toned statements of “the gods must be looking out for me."  When life goes bad they make a side-ward statement of "I must have made the gods angry."  Though these statements are said in jest, the thought process comes from most people’s view of God.  Some see God as a cosmic killjoy, just waiting to zap us.  Others see God as uncaring, uninterested in life.  But in our churches is it any different?

Exodus 20:4-6,  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

This commandment tends to be the one commandment most people in church feel they have no problem with.  How many people in your church do you know that make little statues and bow down to them?  For the most part we see this commandment is for those heathen in foreign countries that we send missionaries to.  Some preachers may try to tie in having a love for things, such as cars, boats, houses, money, etc. and tell us not to worship those things.

However, this commandment is violated everyday multiple times by the best of church goers.  The truth from the commandments is to help mankind understand how big God is.  The first commandment starts by helping us understand that the God of the Bible is the only God and that He is greater than all.  The second commandment continues with that thought and reminds us that God is greater than His creation.  God who is the creator of all, can not be worshiped by taking something from creation and using it to represent God.  Notice that while Moses was receiving these commandments from God, the people of Israel were in the camp making a golden calf.  Notice the passage.  The people were seeking to worship the LORD, but they were using the golden calf to be the god they could see.  

Exodus 32:5, And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.

How many times do we make decisions in life and rationalize it by saying, “Well, God understands what I have to do.”  We set up our church services using worldly ideas to reach people stating that the most important thing is to bring people to God.  But what god are we bringing them to?  My God is bigger than anything this world has to offer.  We do not have to settle for a smaller god when the God of the Bible is greater than all.  We just need to live by faith doing what God tells us to do.

How big is YOUR God?