Why We Should Be Bible-Minded
The Providence/New Bedford area received yet another prestigious honor recently. The Barna Group recently rated the Providence/New Bedford urban area as the LEAST Bible-minded urban area in the country:http://cities.barna.org/americas-most-and-least-bible-minded-cities-2/. Only 9% of adults surveyed in our area said that they have read the Bible in the last seven days and consider the Bible to be accurate. This means that in our area there is a considerable amount of social and cultural pressure to stop reading and trusting the Bible.
So is there a good reason to buck the local trend? Should we seek to be Bible-minded unlike our friends and neighbors? If so, why? There are two main reasons why we should seek to be Bible-minded:
First, the Bible is a special, divine book. There is a very real sense in which the Bible is the words of God. In 2 Timothy3:16, Paul says that “All Scripture is God-breathed…” Peter in 2 Peter 1:20-21 says that the teachings of the Bible are not human in origin, ‘…instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God.” And it is not just a record of the past words of God. It is a living book (1 Peter 1:23). Through the Bible, God still speaks to us today.
Second, the words God is speaking matter for you and me. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is…profitable…” It is useful. Peter says of Scripture in 2 Peter 1:19, “You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in the darkness…” In our dark world, the truth of Scripture is the light we need to live. The Bible is not just a nice book. It is critical for our lives – for our eternal existence.
So the real question is not whether we should be Bible-minded, but rather why so often we ignore our Bibles. Perhaps we do not fully believe the reality that the Bible is a divine book that speaks to us today. Or perhaps we do believe it, and that’s why we avoid the Bible. We like living in the dark, and we shy away from the light.
For more on recent statistical study regarding the spiritual state of the Providence area, listen to John Goasdone’s 3/1/2015 message on our sermon page.