DISCIPLESHIP SERIES -The Foundations of Faith and Biblical Authority

Before we can even begin to align our lives with the Word of God, we must know the WHY we align ourselves with the Word of God.

To understand this we have to examine first the word "faith".

WHAT IS FAITH?

-belief, trust in and loyalty to God
-belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
-firm belief in something for which there is no proof
-complete trust
-something that is believed especially with strong conviction such as a system of religious beliefs

Before we can understand God's Word we must have faith and the Holy Spirit. It is that key which unlocks the Scriptures making sense of what we are reading. The Holy Spirit "interprets" the Scriptures.

If you have never given your life to Jesus, allowed Him to be Lord of your life through faith ("faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1") then you will never fully understand the Scriptures as they were breathed and inspired by God Himself. It will always be a mystery to you. It will always be a roadblock to understanding and just another ancient book collecting dust. You will not see it for what it is. It will be IMPOSSIBLE. Why?  Because the Holy Spirit interpreter is lacking in your life. 

Those who give their life to Christ and allow Him to be Lord of their existence are brought into a real family with Christ. They are brought into community and their eyes are opened to what God's Word is trying to teach and say.
While the world INSISTS there are many paths to God, Jesus Himself spoke and said:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Followers of Christ KNOW who Jesus is and over the centuries continuing today DIE to preserve their witness to the world that HE is the only true God.

Now if you're reading this and you're turned off by what truth I just spoke here, I want to challenge you.  When you are finished reading this lesson, ask God to show you the truth. Ask Him to reveal the doubts in your heart and to remove those roadblocks so you can clearly see HIM.
In His own Word He PROMISES:

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

 

It seems almost too basic right?
God is NOT hiding. He doesn't seek to make you jump through hoops to find Him. He desires relationship with every human on this earth.  He has made it as simple as inviting you to ask Him personally. Just as if you were asking your friend a question about themselves. "What do you have to lose?"

There is more to faith and understanding of it but when it comes to the basic building blocks to build that foundation, Christ is the cornerstone. He is the one that you first must have in your life to understand anything else being taught here.

RELATIONSHIP VS RULES

We might hear the phrase "It's about relationship vs religion". 

There is so much I could go into here, but I will save that for another time. 

For now I want to focus briefly on a couple of things before we launch into the authority of God's Word built on the foundations of everything above. 

Relationship is what you think of with a husband and wife, a girlfriend and boyfriend, a friendship, a family unit, right?

Have you ever thought of the concept of Christ being in "relationship" with YOU?

Christ as family

Christ as a friend

Christ as intimate such as in a husband and wife relationship (which by the way He created!)

Maybe this resonates to how you may have grown up:

Christ as judge

Christ as a distant entity making rules and regulations you must follow or else

Christ who you must please at all times to be worthy and earn His love.

Think of what happens in relationships. Here are a few things:

Sometimes there's discipline needed, sometimes it hurts, sometimes there is pain. But other times great memories are made, care, concern, love and joy, deep friendships that can stand the test of time. 

Just imagine a PERFECT God extending the attributes of relationship to YOU as a human being. He could never make a mistake, He could never make a decision out of selfish ambition, He could never do wrong against you. 

But is that the case with our earthly relationships? Of course not. We fail, hurt each other, choose selfishness. 

With whom would you want to be in a relationship the most in light of that knowledge? 

GOD COMMUNICATION

Let's imagine something for a moment.

Imagine you have this great new relationship going. You're so excited barely able to contain yourself on where this is headed, what is going to happen? What amazing events, words, thoughts, ideas will be shared between you? 

BUT the days and weeks go by. You never speak to the person, you never listen to hear what they have to say. You never learn from them and their experiences, their stories. You never GROW.

Suddenly you find yourself feeling very distant from the one who used to make you feel alive in the beginning and you wonder why? You begin to look at them. Try to find the reason of the distance with them, and then you find yourself saying things like. "They should have talked more. They didn't put in enough effort. They they they". It is hard to admit when we are a contributor to a broken relationship isn't it? It is easier to look at the other person and blame them for the issue while believing we have done nothing to make a relationship fail so miserably.

I believe it's the same with God and our relationship with Him. If we are a seasoned believer and we fall into times of famine with God, distance with God, it's not us that we look to first as the problem.

We tend to blame God till someone wakes us up and walks us back through our God relationship history.

What was missing?

Just in any relationship of any kind, if communication is lacking, the relationship goes nowhere.

See where I'm going with this?

So what is our communication avenues with God? (I will touch on these briefly)

• PRAYER. 
• We can pray to God as a real person imagining Him like our friend or family member. And He does speak back if we are silent to listen.
• THE CHURCH. 
• What's the big deal with church? God didn't set up that Pastor to preach to empty pews and seats. He chose Him as an instrument of communication to His people. If we neglect fellowship with other Christians and those who believe we will grow stagnant and isolated. We were meant for community.
• WORSHIP and PRAISE
• Too often we forget this crucial part of communication with God. I won't go into this in detail right now, but it is another avenue of communication.
• GOD'S WORD. THE BIBLE.
• And here we get to the central focus of this lesson.
  
  

THE AUTHORITY AND PURPOSE OF GOD'S WORD

We never could talk about this without highlighting everything above. 

Without the above God's Word would NEVER be viable as truth spoken and we would have a rather shallow relationship with God when we can't even speak to Him or don't give Him time and space to speak.

What does faith as the first step have to do with the Bible?

Consider these passages:

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13) 

And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ (Luke 16:27–31)

What is the purpose of the Bible?

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) 

In a world ever moving away from Scripture and more towards emotions and feelings driven opinions, the Bible, God's Word is the only place we can truly rely on for truth. It keeps us grounded amidst a culture and society ever shifting towards godlessness. We have a calling and those here who are seeking, this is the calling God is calling YOU to as well:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."(1 John 2:15-17)

 

Who will you choose today? For Christians and seekers: A relationship with God in faith hearing from His Word and being doers of the Word OR a relationship with the world that is headed towards destruction?

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25)

Will you allow the world to water down the authority of God's Word in your life or stand firm in foundations of TRUTH?

With love and compassion,