INCORRUPTIBLE
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture:
“The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.” Psalm 12:6, ESV
Theme: God’s Word is not corrupted.
WONDERING ISN’T WANDERING
I used to be afraid to interrogate Scripture. I thought that somehow, if I admitted that I couldn’t see how passage A jibed with passage B, or that I was confused about some aspect of God’s character in passage X compared to passage Y, I was disappointing God. So, I suppressed my questions. Instead of using this brain God gave me to ask Him for clarity or to simply tell Him, “I don’t get this, Lord,” I would pretend the Bible was always easy-peasy to understand. I am learning that wondering is not the same as wandering. Just like I am not offended when my children ask me questions, God is not offended by my questions.
If you, like me, have been afraid to interrogate Scripture, start here: We have the exact Bible God intended for us to have. Human beings are not powerful enough to mess up His message to us. Whatever questions, doubts, or musings you have on the Bible and how it was written and canonized, filter them through the knowledge that the Bible we’ve been handed is the Bible God Himself put into our hands.
APEIROHEDRON
In geometry, polyhedrons are things like pyramids (or tetrahedrons) and cubes. They’re multi-faceted, but their surfaces can be numbered. But did you know that there is such a thing as an “infinite polyhedron?” A polyhedron whose surfaces cannot be numbered is called an “apeirohedron.” The existence of Jesus makes everything in Scripture click into place like a puzzle, but instead of making Scripture one-dimensional, He makes it infinitely dimensional. Just as my mind cannot fathom an infinite-sided shape, so also my mind cannot fathom the perfect and infinite mind of God.
The more we read the Bible, the more we will experience this paradox. It shows Jesus as the clear Golden Thread whispered on every page. Because of Jesus, the Law and the Prophets make sense, and simultaneously, it is layered with so much depth that we will not reach the bottom of it during our lifetime.
IMPERFECT READING OF THE PERFECT WORD
“Lots of people who love Jesus—and also take the Bible seriously—think differently about this.”
I heard a mother say this to her child recently, and I felt like shackles had been removed from my faith walk. She will never know how much I needed to hear those words, so I’m passing them along to you in case you need them, too. There have been so many times in my life when I’ve been so certain that what I believed was absolutely true, only to then decide that I had been mistaken. There are also committed Christians in my life whose opinions on doctrinal issues, faith, politics, and culture are so different from my own that it’s hard to reconcile those differences in my mind. If you are an American Christian, then you probably see it, too. There are over 200 Christian denominations in the United States. That means more than 200 different Christian “families” have looked at God’s Word and decided that they know the best way to interpret it.
Sometimes, you and the committed Christian next to you will read a passage and see it completely differently. Of course, we believe that we are reading the text correctly and that if someone disagrees with us, then they must be wrong. We have to be careful that while elevating the authority of Scripture (which we absolutely must do), that we are not accidentally elevating our own interpretation of Scripture, or demeaning someone else for their understanding. We have the Bible God meant for us to have, but since we are not God, we have to concede that perhaps our reading of His Word is not flawless.
ASK
The odds of my way of reading Scripture being exactly right are not very good, unfortunately. But you know what? I can ask Him for clarity. I can ask Him for help understanding. I can ask Him to open my eyes to His intentions on the pages of Scripture. God’s Word is God’s Word, even when I don’t get it exactly right. God’s Word is Truth, even though the lens through which I’m viewing it is imperfect.
Make It Personal: The Lord has given us the uncorrupted, timeless gift of His Word. Scripture has been given to us to form and transform our hearts and minds. Are we allowing God’s Word to form us, or are we forming it to ourselves instead? Are we simply using the Bible to validate the answers we already “know,” or are we searching it the way God tells us to, with hearts that are eager and open to learn from Him? Don’t be afraid to ask God questions and to sit with the “wondering” as you await His response. God is delighted when we seek Him in the pages of Scripture.
Pray: Lord, thank You for Your unchanging nature and Your unchanging Word. You have given us the living passages of the Bible through which to learn and grow in You. God, help me to love Your Word deeply, and to remember, in humility, that I don’t have to get it all right because You have gotten it all right. Your Word is True. I pray that you would prepare my heart and mind to learn from You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Read: Hebrews 13:8; John 17:17; Romans 12:2
Weekly Memory Verse:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105, ESV