Pastor Marc Likins
There is so much to be found in God’s Word. It is rich with knowledge and truth, doctrine and principles, stories and inspiration. And while I could never find the words to tell you all that I have found in God’s Word, let me tell you some of it.
I have found help.
We can’t go through life alone, and we often need help. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Do you need wisdom, counsel, direction, or guidance? Have you ever had a day when your mind was distorted, and you felt as if you were headed in the wrong direction? Spend a little time in Scripture and see if it doesn’t clear up your faulty thinking, set your feet upon a rock, and send you in a good direction.
I have found hope.
It’s been a difficult year for most of us, and it would be easy to fall into hopelessness. However, God’s Word gives us a confident expectation that better things are ahead – in this life and eternity. We can live with expectations of the future, that good things can still come, that we haven’t done anything so badly that God doesn’t want to use us, and that we can rise up to be who God wants us to be.
I have found healing.
There will come a day for each of us when we are punched in the soul. A day when we will wonder how we will move forward internally, where the very idea of our soul being satisfied seems foreign and distant. God’s Word has the medicine that our soul needs! Heaven’s apothecary as it were. How many people have found their souls restored and a healing balm in the words of Psalm 23? If we will take the medicine of His Word and apply it liberally to our hearts, we won’t believe the healing we will find!
I have found happiness.
Psalm 1:1 - 2 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Just like the man described in Psalm 1, we need to value and esteem God’s Word above all else, meditating on it day and night! This man is blessed and delights in Scripture. If we choose God’s Word as our authority, we will find a blessedness and delight that the world cannot give and it cannot take away!
I have found heaven.
The future is not a mystery. God’s Word tells us what heaven will be like and even more, how we can get there. Heaven can’t be earned, and we don’t deserve it, but we can receive it by faith. God’s Word is clear, and it tells us that not everyone will be in heaven, but you don't have to miss it! It’s a free gift that is received by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Not on your merit, but on Christ’s merit and finished work on the cross.
I have found Him.
This is the whole point. The Bible isn’t just about marriage, family, money, forgiveness, etc. The real purpose of the Bible is to point you to Jesus. The Scriptures aren’t an end, they are a means to an end - the end is Jesus. This is why Jesus told diligent Bible students to “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” Everything connects to Him. He is the center of it all. To have an accurate use of Scripture, you need more than a high view of Scripture. You have to understand that the Bible is a book full of advertisements about Jesus. Every story is meant to whisper His name.