Ten is a very fun age. I mean I don’t really remember personally, but it sure looks flippin’ awesome (you just got dad joked)! This week I enjoyed filming my sons’ first “stunt” movie. It’s called Hulk Twins, and it’s clearly the first step in a very successful YouTube career. The way our tall, lean, twistin’ machine navigates the skies is so fun to watch.
But what’s coolest is that he pretty much figured out how to acrobat using only what God gave him: his tenacious will and those powerful legs to propel him into the stratosphere! Sure, he’s learned some tricks from others, but he exhibits the most freedom and elation when he can – and does – learn to understand something new and exciting all by himself.
Guess what? Using what God’s given us – his Bible and a persistent will to enable us to explore it – is the best way to learn new and exciting things about God as well. Now certainly I’m not saying that other humans play no role in a deeper understanding of God, just as they aren’t unimportant in trampoline skills. What I am saying is this: Let God’s words speak first and foremost before you add human filters to complicate or alter what he says. We will find the most freedom and elation learning about God when we encounter him as directly as possible, most reliably through his very words in the Bible (Click to tweet).
Here are some great reasons why:
1. If God really has communicated to us through the Bible, then his own words will teach us far more powerfully and accurately than additional human opinions about those words. An autobiography is more reliable than a biography every time.
2. If seminary or academic knowledge is more authoritative or necessary to understand God than reading his words directly, then God has chosen to suboptimally reveal himself to the vast majority of Christians. Through human history, only a handful of us have had access to such instruction!
3. If the authority of such training or credentials is automatically legitimate and reliable, then how can there be such diverse disagreement among those with the same degree of expertise? How do you know which of them – if any – is the authority of the “authorities”? Well, you personally compare them to God’s word, just as the “noble” Bereans did when they double-checked the teaching of even one so great as Paul (Acts 17:11).
4. God would rather have us get to know his opinions about him than others’ opinions, because the very purpose for which he created us was to find and know him (Click to tweet) . Focusing on his words isn’t just more accurate, it brings you closer to accomplishing why you’re here (Acts 17:26-27, John 17:3, Philippians. 3:8-9).
5. God repeatedly tells and shows us that he prefers to reveal himself through the weak and foolish and unlikely rather than the learned experts (e.g. 1 Cor. 1: 20-27, 3:18-20, and almost everyone God selects for his work in the Bible). God prefers fisherman and tax collectors to advanced education. The biblical religious experts – the Pharisees and Saul – didn’t exactly have great track records until Saul experienced Jesus’ words directly and was thereby freed to understand him accurately (Acts 9:1-22).
God tells us clearly that those who know him and his words well will exceed the insight and understanding of their teachers and elders (Psalm 119:99-100). So why is an author of a book about God and his words telling you this? First, because God uses normal people no less than “experts” to help point you to his words. Second, because the very purpose of Healing Hereafter is to directly and thoroughly explore God’s word until it makes sense, free and instantly here. Third, if you gotta choose, I’ll still tell you to read the Bible over my book – or any other book.
If you absorb God’s words honestly and completely, you’ll be as excited as a child about how freely you’ll be to learn about God. You might even do a double back flip!
