We begin with the Bible. In C101, you started reading it, but without a lot of context. We asked you to start because reading the Bible is so important for Followers of Jesus.

But now we get to the obvious question: what is the Bible?

Give three different ways of understanding the Bible.

First a letter from God.

In your school days, did anyone get little letters from their parents in their lunch? My mother did.

The intent was to send a little message to let me know my mother cared, and was thinking of me while I was far away.

Suppose she could have used the same letters to give me guidance…Marge Simpson did that, I remember an episode where Bart got this letter:

And Lisa got this letter. If you know the Simpsons show at all, you’ll recognize that the kids definitely got their lunches mixed up!

God uses the Bible much like these letters…on the one hand to encourage and communicate his care for us, and on the other hand to give us guidance and instruction.

God speaks to people through the Bible.

God wants us to live in a close and personal relationship with him, and like all relationships, that means we need to communicate. He wants to speak to us daily through the Bible, it is a letter from God to us.

The entire purpose of the Bible being written is to show us how much God loves us and that we can enter in a relationship with God through Jesus.

While God does speak to us in many ways through his Holy Spirit, and we can speak to God (we will look at prayer next week), God especially speaks to us through the Bible…not in an audible way, but in our hearts, and when God speaks to us in the words of this love letter things happen….

Firstly God brings faith to those who are not yet Christians…it is often as people read the Bible and encounter God that they come to faith and that may be the case for some of you here. They read something that seems to be speaking directly to them and their lives.

Question: Have you tried reading the Bible before?  What parts did you try to read, and what was your experience?