The Bible is Comfort and Encouragement

 As I look at the title of this blog I feel it should read 'the Bible offers comfort and encouragement', for it certainly does.  When people are going through difficulties, sickness, grief, feeling overwhelmed, they often turn to the Bible for comfort.  We have probably all been to funerals where Psalm 23 was read or sung.  And probably been to weddings where 1 Corinthians 13 which speaks of the greatness of love and what real love is was read.  We had it at our wedding!

You may know that it has been the mission of Gideons International https://gideons.org/ to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout 190+ countries. One way they do this is by giving Bibles and New Testaments to students. They also put Bibles in hotel and motel rooms throughout the world.  You may have received one of these in your high school days.  Why do they do this?  Because the Bible contains a message of comfort and encouragement for every stage of life.

I have heard of people at their wits end in a hotel room in a city far from home, who pick up a Bible and find help for their present need and are comforted, encouraged and transformed. It works! (The Gideon Bibles usually have special pages to lead you to certain Bible passages for certain needs.)  

Here are just a few examples of the comfort you can find in the Bible.....New Living Translation (NLT)

"God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort......." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me to bring good news to the poor, to comfort the brokenhearted..." Isaiah 61:1

" ...those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again!"......Isaiah 26:19

"God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows...." Psalm 68:5

I remember back to the week of 9/11, as we know it, when the twin towers in New York City were deliberately struck by commercial aircraft, killing many people and shocking the world.  We were living in Hong Kong at the time and a few days after this I was due to fly out to the USA to attend a Women's Christian Convention.  

It didn't look at all hopeful and airlines stopped flying to the USA for a few days and then when they began again there was a huge backlog of passengers waiting to leave Hong Kong.  Added to this was the fact that I was travelling on a staff standby ticket.  Hopeless??  I turned to the Lord for wisdom and encouragement.  My eyes alighted on this verse.... "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:5  

So I set about putting the impossibilities aside and prayed for God to lead me.  On the day I was planning to travel I fronted up to the staff check in desk and a sign confronted me "No Staff Travel at this time."  I handed over my ticket anyway and said a quiet prayer, remembering to 'not depend on my own understanding'.  The check in girl looked at my ticket,  consulted with her associate in Chinese, and gave me a time to return to the desk.  

It was always a nerve-wracking time, waiting to see if we would get seats on a flight or not.  Most times, (in those days) it was pretty good but now was a different scene entirely.  I returned to the desk at the appointed time and after a loooong wait they called my name and gave me a ticket for one of the last 2 seats available on that flight.  Whew!!  And lots of praise to God!

In Hebrews 4:12 is says this...."The word of God is alive and powerful......".  It surely is.  Do take some time to look into it for your own comfort and encouragement. Ask God to speak to you.

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, God of all comfort, would you draw me to reading your word. Would you speak to me about the things that I am concerned about and give me your wisdom. Amen

The Bible Is Truth

In my last post I encouraged you toward daily Bible reading.  Here it is 6 weeks later and I wonder if you have begun to develop that habit. I'm not asking for confessions!  That will be between you and God.  However, since I wrote that I have jotted down a few headings on what the Bible is so I will make the next 4 blogs about different things that the Bible is.

Recently I half-jokingly suggested to a friend that he might like to read the Bible to his poor-sighted wife.  She is a believer and he is not, and every now and then I 'push his button' just to tease, but also to get him to think.  That day his cheeky response was, "I don't read novels!" 

If there is one thing I absolutely know for sure it is that the Bible is NOT a novel.  The (Protestant) Holy Bible is an amazing collection of 66 books, by almost as many writers, spanning centuries.  It is divided into 2 parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.  

The Old Testament covers the story of God's chosen people, the Israelites, who were direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It also contains elements of history, poetry and prophecy.  The New Testament is the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and his followers.  It finishes with the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the apostle John and tells of how this world will pass away and be replaced by a new earth ruled by Jesus Christ.  

In recent years many people have worked on various translations of the Bible in order to make it more easy to read.  Some are good, others are not so good.  I generally use the New King James Version (NKJV), New International Version (NIV) and the New Living Translation (NLT). 

Why do I say that the Bible is truth?  Because I believe that it is the Word of God;  the God who created the heavens and the earth and gave us a written account of it.  The God who created us (and all who have walked this earth before us), who has given us his words to instruct and guide us in how to live a full and satisfying life on this earth.  

Not only that, he is God who promised to send his Son to this earth as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. From the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God's one command to them, sin became a barrier between us and God.  From that time sin was part of every person born.  We were separated from God by the barrier of sin which could only be broken down by a perfect man, one who never sinned. That man was Jesus Christ. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)

There are so many reasons why I believe that the Bible is Truth; one of the main ones is because so many prophecies given in both the Old and New Testaments have been fulfilled, to the letter, in amazing ways through the centuries.  There are 351 Old Testament prophecies that have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ alone.  Check this out https://www.newtestamentchristians.com/bible-study-resources/351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/

Next time I will give you some more of what the Bible is and what it contains.  Happy reading!

Prayer: Dear God, please help me to have a desire to study and understand your Word. Amen