Hebrews 1:1-2 – “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,”

Matthew 5:17 – “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

“I wish I knew what to do.” “It’s too bad the Bible doesn’t have anything to say about ……”.  “I just wish God would tell me which direction to take”.  “The Bible isn’t relevant to modern day issues”.   These are just some of the common comments heard when talking about knowing God’s will.  It seems that we are no different than the people who after encountering Jesus, requested miracles be done regularly in order to follow Him.

Luke 11:29 – “When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” (The resurrection of Christ after 3 days, evidencing that He is God)

John 6:30-33 – “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

People often misunderstand God’s purpose in the Bible.  It is not meant  to be a magic 8 ball where you shake it, and it tells you what to do.  It’s not meant to be a self-help book on how to have a better life (many of it’s writers were martyred after all).  The Bible is meant to be the revelation of God.  Notice too, from Hebrews 1 above, that the revelation is both the prophets (Old Testament) and through Christ (New Testament).  God is not the God of the new Testament only, but to know Him, we must know that He is everything in the Old Testament (Yes, this includes his righteousness destroying wicked cities, etc.)

So how then, do we live?  Come to know the God of the Bible.  Ask yourself how your response to a situation/choices match up to the character of God to make His glory known.  We do not need any further revelation from God, we have everything we need through the Word.   What we need is to love God, and want to know Him, instead of looking for emotionless, empty “answers”.  God loves us enough to want a relationship with us.  What is best for us, and what gives us greatest joy, are not at odds, if you look for answers not from God, but in Him.

Grace and Peace,

Adam