Dispelling 6 Myths of the Bible

Aloha!

As promised, here are my notes from last night's youth talk. Feel free to pick, question, read, share etc!
Major thanks to Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell, and of course God in the writing here...

Dispelling 6 Myths of the Bible

Usually, teaching about the Bible is like when people teach about prayer. It’s all about guilt.
“You don’t read enough”
“You’re not doing it right”
“You’re not cross-referencing everything”
But you shouldn’t read your Bible out of guilt. Nobody should force you to read it. You should because you want to.

Like worship as well – we encourage you to worship, but only because we want you to WANT to worship.

Bible reading should be inspiring, fresh, vibrant and powerful.
You’re not reading a dictionary or instruction manual.

In fact, let’s get rid of two myths right now.

Myth 1. The Bible is an instruction manual for life.
The Bible is not an instruction manual for life.
It’s not a user’s guide for your body. How many people actually read the instruction manual before they play a game? Or build something? How many times have you been inspired to read an instruction manual for your toaster?

Myth 2. The Bible is like a dictionary.
We don’t look up the word ‘faith’ and it gives us an accurate description of what that is.
We don’t look up ‘love’ and it says “God is love, the end.”
No. Not at all.
We get stories, and journals and experiences of these things. We get to see people who have lots of faith, people’s faith failing like when Peter walked on the water, we see bad things to happen to people who have faith and we see great things. We get stories, stories that show us people who have experienced these things and then that helps us understand. We don’t get a description of love, we get to see what love looks like, see people fall in love, out of love, find love, lose love, try love, hate love and die out of love.

I am so glad the Bible is not some formula. If it was just “do this + this – sin = salvation” then it wouldn’t have all the beauty and brokenness that we have.

Let’s look at Acts 8. (26-40)

I love the honesty here. He could have lied and said yes and tried to come up with something. But instead he questioned it, he asked about it, and in return got so much more from it. Was he talking about himself or someone else?

Myth 3. The Bible is just about some old kings and stuff
The Bible is ALL about God.
Explain the Road to Emmaus. In Luke 24:25-26, it says that Jesus explained all the scriptures concerning himself. It all works out as one big timeline. For example, all the Kings that you read about in old testament had great significance, for they were the predecessors of Jesus. They were attacked and had wars and all had to be recorded so we could see just how much God was in control to bring about Jesus. If the enemy could have got one killed before he had a son, then the family line would not have continued and this would have prevented Jesus’ birth. Wow. It’s all connected.

Myth 4. The Bible is not relevant.
The Bible was not coughed up by God, it didn’t just land on the Earth one day and that was that. God spent thousands of years working it through with people and getting them to write it. It is so much more honest and true and relevant because it happened to real people.

Quote some Rob Bell, "Velvet Elvis" page 64-65 from Paragraph 2.

Myth 5. The Bible is a book.
The Bible is not a book, it is a library. There are history books, journals, letters, poems, thoughts…it’s like a scrapbook of humankind, touched by God. We see their lives in pain, misery and regret, and others in happiness, restoration and healing. It’s got romance, war, action, cliff-hangers and multi-coloured characters. And yet, as we said before – it all fits together around God.

If my story was in the Bible, or if yours was – it wouldn’t be perfect. It wouldn’t be eloquently written. It would contain truth and honesty about our brokenness and weakness, and occasionally, a story about our strength. A time where we were obedient and something amazing happened – we connected with God because we dared to either stand up or get on our knees.

When you start reading the Bible as the stories of real people in real situations, suddenly it has a life – because God gave them those lives and He inspired them to record it.

This isn’t an instruction manual or a dictionary. A dictionary does not profess to be anything other than a ‘collection of words alphabetically’ – but even it describes the Bible as an authoritive text.

This Bible is like God, our Father, reading us a bedtime story to comfort us.
Or giving an encouraging speech during a war.
Or a friend giving us some advice because they’ve been there.
It is so much more than just a book.

Myth 6. The Bible is boring
The Bible is not boring.
Have you seen those adverts for the iPhone? You must have. I really wanted to make a video like that for you, but it would be too long. So here’s a live version. I’m going to pitch my advert for the Bible.
• It’s not new – but that’s OK – Retro is in right now. Plus, it’ll never go out of date.
• It never needs an upgrade
• It comes in different languages and whatever style to suit your taste
• It will always tell you the truth.
• It’s always accurate.
• It’s compatible with all your other technology. In fact, it won’t bother them at all!
• It will give you direction, but you don’t even have to know where you’re going
• No batteries required. It’s always fully charged with power
• No internet connection required.
• Volume control. Sometimes it’s quiet, but it can loud. REALLY LOUD.
• Other audio functions; you can read it, or it can speak to you
• It’s just bigger than your hand – but can come in any size you like
• If colour is your thing, this comes in every single one. Name it.
• It has a lifetime guarantee.
• In fact, it has LOTS of guarantees for your life
• It’ll never break
• Virus proof
• Easy to use
• Always available
• And it’s anti-aging. This can EXTEND. YOUR. LIFE.

In Conclusion....

It’s the only reason I haven’t slipped away.
For fire to burn, you need to throw wood on it. This is your wood.
Man shall not live by bread alone…

Now that you have it – what are you going to do with it?

Will it be your door stop or your soapbox?

If the Bible is really your sword – always know where it is – you’d never lose your actual sword, because what happens when someone attacks you or your faith?

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Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful!
-AG