God, spiritual realities, heaven – such ideas our increasingly secular generation refuses to acknowledge. But the Christian knows these are real, and that believers have a calling from God which comes to them from that spiritual realm and is meant to bear witness to God in the here and now.

In Psalm 12, David describes a situation in which lies and deception are the order of the day. No one has or wants the truth, and everyone asserts his own authority to be a law unto himself. He describes a world very much like the one in which we live.

God intends His Word to be the joy and rejoicing of heart for all people. But all some folks can see in the Bible are unreasonable restraints and unpalatable priorities.

The first reason God gave us the Scriptures is that we may understand the doctrines that equip us for every good work. Doctrine matters, and sound doctrine matters supremely.

Rightly dividing the Word of truth – to use Paul’s expression – involves a seven-faceted process of reading, meditating, and studying the Bible under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. Any believer can learn to do this, and every believer should.

The science of hermeneutics addresses the question of how best to understand the Bible. This Word that is able to save and sanctify, and which we read and study daily, is fraught with deep meanings that can only be ferreted out by following protocols outlined in the Bible itself.

The promise of Scripture is that it is able to save our soul. The Bible possesses power to do a work within us that makes all things new, and that sets us on a path of joy and rejoicing as a way of life.

Reading the Bible is the starting-point for having the Word of Christ dwell in you richly – the joy and rejoicing of your heart.

Before we can wield the Sword of the Spirit, we need to receive it, to allow the Word of God to become firmly planted in our souls, and to begin dwelling there richly.

The Word of God leads us into a covenant relationship with our Creator and Lord, so that, through Jesus Christ, we may realize the precious and very great promises of God as a banquet of spiritual vitality and delight.

The Bible is a single Book, from the mind of a single Author. It tells a single story, and it does so within the framework of a single, powerful structure. That story and structure are God’s covenant.

This generation of Christians is starving for truth, and most of us don’t even recognize this is so. We are awash in the Bible and flush with opportunities for hearing and learning the Word of God. But where is the evidence that this powerful and living Word is at work within us, making all things new?