You Have the Words of Life Introduction
I am including the almost final editing process of my book “You Have the Words of Life” as I complete each chapter here on Online Bible Institute.
Introduction
I didn’t grow up with the Bible. As a child my family didn’t attend church so I was not introduced to Bible stories or Bible characters. When I was nineteen a friend gave me a Bible. He had been telling me about Jesus and sharing the gospel with me, but when he encouraged me to give my life to Jesus I declined because I could not for the life of me see how Christians had any fun. It was then that my friend handed me his Bible and I took it.* Over the next five or six years I tried to read that Bible every now and again. But it just never made any sense. I would get bogged down and frustrated and close it and put it away. The problem wasn’t with the Bible, it was with me.
1 Corinthians 2
14 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
When I was twenty-five I finally made the decision to give my life to Jesus. After that, reading the Bible was completely different. It seemed somehow alive and I loved to read it. The Bible hadn’t changed. I had. I now had the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me into truth.
John 16:3
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit in giving us this knowledge is called “illumination”. Illumination allows us to understand and to love what we are reading in the Bible. Before we begin our relationship with Jesus, our minds are clouded by sin which makes the truths of the Bible difficult to grasp or believe. In Christ, however, through the Spirit, our hearts and our minds are opened and tuned into the scripture so that we can understand.
Ephesians 1:17-18
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Illumination is the work of the Holy Spirit applying God’s revealed truth in the Bible to our hearts, so that we understand for ourselves what the scripture is saying. With this is mind I want to introduce to you the idea of what I call “illuminated reading”. Illuminated reading is inviting the Holy Spirit to guide you in your daily reading to see what He wants you to see. As you start your Bible reading time, ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the scripture to you. I actually pray along these lines:
“Holy Spirit, as I read through the Word today, would you show me what you want me to see.”
And then as I begin to read, some passage or verse will usually stand out from all the rest. It is almost as if the Holy Spirit highlights a verse or passage as I am reading. When that happens, I like to take time throughout the day to reflect on what jumped out at me. In this book, I am going to work through this process with you in the Gospel of John. As we read each chapter, I will take some time to reflect on the verse or passage that I felt was illuminated to me by the Spirit as I read. My hope is that this process will help develop in you a solid Bible reading habit that is filled with life, excitement and joy.
Before we get started with our Bible reading journey I want to give you some background information on the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John was written by the Apostle John. In the first chapter John the Baptist makes an appearance beginning in verse seven and because of this people are often mistaken into thinking that John the Baptist was the author of the Gospel. Clearing this confusion up early will be helpful as you read through the Gospel. The writer of the Gospel of John is the Apostle John, not John the Baptist.
John was the youngest of the apostles when he was called by Jesus and he lived the longest natural life. He was called by Jesus to be a follower while he was mending fishing nets with his father and older brother James by the lake of Tiberias.
Matthew 4:21-22
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them. 22 They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.
John, his brother James, and Peter were perhaps the closest to Jesus during His ministry. The three of them were privileged to be with Jesus during some critical times in His ministry.
Mark 5:37-42
37 He allowed no one to follow him, except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing. 39 When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.” 40 They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying. 41 Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!” 42 Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement.
Matthew 17:1-3
1 After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. 2 He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. 3 Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.
Matthew 26:36-39
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.” 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.” 39 He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
The Apostle John states his purpose in writing the gospel in John 20:31:
John 20:30-31
30 Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
It will be helpful to keep this verse in mind as you read through the gospel of John. I suggest that you read through this book by reading one chapter each day. Over the course of the day, reflect on what you read and how it impacts your life. When you are done with this book, my hope is that you will continue reading the Bible with this method. Read one chapter each day, ask the Holy Spirit to “illuminate” what He wants you to see and then take time throughout the day to reflect on what He shows you!
*All these years later and I still have that Bible. That it stayed with me through all the various trials and journeys of my life is amazing to me. I am including a picture for you below. The highlighting that you see was in the Bible when my friend gave it to me. The fact that it was his personal study Bible was not fully appreciated by me until my own journey with Jesus began six years later.
