14 minutes ago4 min read

Growing your mind and your heart in 2025.

"Want some good news?"

Don't you love it when that is someone's opening line?

Bible sales are going through the roof.

In the last year, they increased by 22%!

And mostly, by first time buyers.1

In my travels, on airplanes and in airports, at home, in my conversations with people - at the grocery store and in the gym, people are interested in God. And quite clearly, they want to know what the Bible has to say.

For 16 1/2 years I have written these Morning Briefings--especially because the Bible is not always easy to digest. Why study tough stuff, like why God allowed Joseph to be mistreated by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold to the Egyptians, lied about to Pharaoh, thrown in jail, etc., when you could do something else like catch up on sports talk, scroll on social media, listen to the news or a podcast on your phone?

Straight up--all of those things are fleeting, they have no lasting value. Scripture endures. "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of God stands forever."2

Simply put, the Bible has the ability to change our lives because it is God speaking to us the things he wants us to know--important truths like

->Who he is

->how he feels about us

->how we got here

The Bible tells us

->God wants to have a relationship with us

->about his Son, Jesus Christ, who made relationship with God possible

->the Bible lays out God's unique purpose for our lives

->the best way to live, how to treat people, what's right and what is wrong

->Jesus Christ is coming again!

->the destiny of those who have relationship with him

->and the hopeless, horrible fate of those who reject him.

We were made for God, and the Bible is where we find him.

What exactly is contained inside the covers of the Bible?

Sixty-six books-39 in the Old Testament, written in Hebrew, spanning 1500 years;

27 books in the New Testament, written in Greek, covering about 80 to 90 years. The Bible was God-inspired, or as the Greek word Paul used for 'inspired' indicates, 'God breathed'.3 One of the ways we know that the Bible is true is that even though it was written by 40 different authors, there are no contradictions. Nothing short of amazing.

The main thing to know is that the Bible is what it purports to be . . . TRUTH. It is the Word of God, regardless of what a person may think about it. It is supported by archaeological evidence, fulfilled prophecy, historical and scientific evidence. And I have noticed that those who read the Bible, seek to understand and apply it,

are radically changed by it.

Why does it have the power to change us? As our friend Paul wrote to young Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."3 And yet, as Dwight L. Moody said, "the Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation."4

Good news or bad news: the Bible tells it like it is. Now if I were writing the Bible, I would leave out the mess-ups and sins of our would-be heroes . . . not God. Take David, who we all loved as a shepherd then anointed king, (you know the author of Psalm 23 that we have been considering), who commits adultery and then kills the woman's husband! Seriously?! But after that, God still refers to him as 'a man after his own heart'.5 Fact is, we are all sinners, and so were they.

And why in the world do I talk so much about Saul, or is it Paul, his Greek name? Why would I travel across the world, and take people with me by the way, to travel in his footsteps? I owe my life to the gospel of Jesus — and no one has taken me deeper into the mysteries of the gospel than Paul. And after the Lord Jesus himself, no one has won my admiration more.6 Paul wrote 13 out of the 27 books in the New Testament, each one a letter to Christ followers in different towns or regions. Unbelievably, his ancient writings have application to us in our modern day, which we see over and over again.

O, so much to glean from the precious words of the Bible. Draw us, O Lord, to Your Word which is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path.7 Amen.

This is what it's all about! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV8bv4QuDtM

Christine!