Title: The Word Came to Me

Topic: Word

Summary: The Bible is a large block of text that hasn't changed for a couple of thousand years; yet it describes "the word of the Lord" as a living force that speaks directly to people about what is going on in their lives and surroundings. How can we reconcile these two views?

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Genesis 15:1-2
1 Samuel 15:10-11; 2:12-14, 17; 3:4-10, 15-18; 15:13-14, 22
2 Samuel 7:4; 24:11-12
1 Kings 6:11-14; 12:22, 24; 17:1-4, 8; 18:1; 19:9; 21:17, 27-28
2 Kings 20:1-7
1 Chronicles 22:6-10
Psalms 105:17-19
Jeremiah 1:1
Jonah 1:1-3; 2:10; 3:1, 3; 4:9
Zechariah 4:8-14
Luke 3:2-3, 8, 10; 12:20
Acts of the Apostles 22:6-10

Ships were used in the ancient world -- as they generally are now -- to carry freight from nation to nation for trade. The various valuable items in the cargo represent desires for specific good things and individual ideas about how to accomplish good things. The ships, then, represent containers for those good desires and true ideas -- they represent doctrinal systems, large collections of good desires and true thoughts woven into a whole and working as one. For instance, if we believe that we need to turn to the Bible to learn about right and wrong, need to compel ourselves to do what's right even if we don't want to, and need to trust that the Lord will help us come to love doing what's right, that would be a doctrinal system -- a bunch of ideas and desires for good all working together. Specific ideas -- we should read the Bible, we should pray, we can trust that the Lord is helping us -- are like cargo that is carried along by that larger doctrine.