A Love Letter from God

I love the Bible. I’ve read it and taught it for over forty years. It is, by necessity, a regular part of my everyday life as a pastor. That said, you might think, after so many years of Bible study, that I might be bored with it. On the contrary, I love everything about it. I’m more drawn to it, more captivated by it, more able to enter in and put myself in the story than I have ever been. It nourishes my soul. If your experience of God in Scripture is more off-again than on-again, you might benefit from a fresh approach. Here are some things to keep in mind. First,

No one cares more for you or about you than God

How do I know? He wrote you a love letter! The Bible is more than revelation, it’s about relationship! Saint Gregory the Great said, “The Bible is a letter from God.” And Saint Augustine said, “The Bible does nothing but speak of God’s love for us.” So, in a sense, you could say the Bible is God’s love letter to us. Jesus himself underlines this in John 5:39. He says, "You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

The Scriptures are about Him, about what He did for us — compelled by love. They’re about God’s relentless pursuit, His never-ending determination to recover what was lost — the intimate relationship He so desperately wants with each of His children. Unfortunately, despite the intimate nature of Scripture, for many believers, the Bible is little more than a well-thumbed manual for life. They may believe God has spoken through the Bible. They may study it, memorize a verse or two, and underline it with highlighters. They may even learn a little Hebrew or Greek to impress their friends, but somehow they seem to miss the point that this book is all about Jesus. It’s all about a love relationship with Jesus.

As we spend time with the Bible, we come into contact with Jesus. It’s always struck me as the most extraordinary, wonderful fact that we can speak to and hear from the person we read about in the pages of this book — the very same Jesus! As we read and meditate on Scripture, He speaks to us. You may never hear an audible voice, though that can happen in my experience, but God speaks to our hearts. Communication is vital to every relationship. The strength of a relationship depends on communication. And…

God has more to say to you than anyone else

Do you believe it? The most common way God speaks today is through the Bible. Now, I know that starting here isn’t spectacular. Meditating on the Bible isn’t as spectacular as some of the other ways God might speak to us. It doesn’t have the sizzle of say a prophetic word or an angelic appearance or a dream, but it’s no less profound and it’s usually easier to understand.

What we want is what happened to John Wimber. John Wimber, the former president of the Vineyard, used to talk about a time when he was traveling cross-country on a plane. He was tired, relaxing in his seat and, as he let his eyes fall on people sitting near him, he suddenly and unexpectedly saw the word “adultery” written across the forehead of a man sitting across the aisle from him. John rubbed his eyes, shook his head, and looked again. And again, in his mind’s eye, he saw the word “adultery” clearly written across the man’s forehead. Then the Lord gave him the name of the woman the man was having an affair with! Can you imagine?

Now, John was used to hearing God this way, so he asked the Lord what he was supposed to do with the information, which is an excellent question. And he felt like the Lord said, “You need to share it with this man.” So John leaned across the aisle and said, “Excuse me, sir, does the name [I’ll use the name] Sandra mean anything to you?” John saw all the blood drain from the man’s face. His word to him was deadly accurate. The man fidgeted uncomfortably and said, “Yes, why do you ask?” And John replied, “You’re having an affair with her, right?” The man turned toward John and told him to keep his voice down. His wife was, apparently, sitting right beside him!

What followed was a deeply personal conversation at the end of which the man repented of his sin and gave his life to Jesus. Then, he turned to his wife, told her what had just happened and John had the opportunity to lead her to Christ as well. Wouldn’t you love to have that kind of experience? I don’t mean, wouldn’t you love to be the person whose sin is exposed on an airplane? I mean, wouldn’t you love to be used by God powerfully? Wouldn’t you love to have God speak so clearly to you?

Well, the place to start hearing God’s voice is not by reading words on other people’s foreheads. The place to start hearing is by meditating on the Word of God. I know it’s not spectacular. Nobody is going to ooo and ahh over your interaction with the Bible. But the Bible is the most common way God will consistently speak to you, and God has more to say to you than anyone else. So before you pick up the book, you pray: “Lord, speak to me as I meditate on your Word.” If you do that, very often you’ll have an experience of being personally addressed by God. Remember…

The Bible is God’s revelation of himself

In the Bible, God has spoken. God’s supreme revelation of himself is the person of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews said, "In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1)." Jesus is God’s ultimate revelation. But the primary way we know about Jesus is through the written revelation. As the apostle Paul wrote, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that God’s servant may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16)." The word translated ‘God-breathed’ is a transliteration. It comes from the Greek word…

theopneustos

“Theo” meaning God or divine gift and “pneustos” meaning breathed. It’s the same root the Greek New Testament uses to describe the Holy Spirit. What the writer is saying is that the Bible IS God speaking! It’s not that God dictated the Bible. Instead, he used a variety of human authors — kings, scholars, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, historians, doctors — over fifteen hundred years. They wrote different types of literature, such as history, poetry, prophecy, and letters. It’s one hundred percent the work of human beings. But, what the writer is saying here is, it’s also one hundred percent breathed by God. It’s a divine product or gift, the creative product of God. When we read and meditate on the Bible, we’re connecting with the divine source. Are you connecting with the divine source?