Why the Bible seems so confusing!

   I know you've struggled with this at one time of your life or another.
How could this book.. that's supposed to be God's holy word.. be so
troublesome to understand?  And why is it that so few people seem to believe
it truly is what it is?

   Ok.. first off.. what is it?  What *is* this book anyway?  Well..
truthfully told, this book is not just one book.. it's 70 books (66 labelled
books, with a total of 5 books of Psalms.. so that makes 70).  It is a huge
number of tellings of the relationship between God and mankind.. as to what
matters most.. what He truly desires of us.. what happens when we listen to
Him, and what happens when we disobey.  Every single book in the Bible
portrays multitudes of facets of how God wants us living.  So.. in that
respect.. many people call it.. God's Word to us.

   But is it truly right to call the Bible, "God's Word"?  I've struggled
with this for awhile.. muchly because of the verse that says that His Word is
inerrant.  And if this is so, would not the Bible have to be inerrant in
order to be His Word?  And I know that, even if you meet up with tons of
Christians who will tell you that the Bible is without fault... All you have
to do is read it with an open mind and you will notice small discrepancies in
its pages.  NOTE!  I said small.  But small errors are *still* errors.  And
if the Bible has errors.. can it truly be called, "God's Word?"

   Factually speaking.. if a person considers the Bible to be God's inerrant
Word, and adheres properly to all that it speaks about our mandate to love
God and our fellow man by God's definition/standard of love.. and turns tail
at all the various ways of disobedience that the Bible points out.. so much
so that, even *IF* the person refuses to acknowledge the minor
discrepancies within its pages as real errors, that person can still be very
much in love with God.. and still be serving God to a very powerful and
genuine degree.  BUT!  If you want to be 100% accurate.. then.. no.. the
Bible is *NOT* God's Word.
   Oh!  And what about all the translational error out there?  There's a ton
of it nowadays.  In translations such as the NIV, so much 'freedom' has been
taken by those who claimed to know the truth of Scripture, that these pages
are polluted with false doctrine from mere confused sects of Christianity..
rather than unpolluted Scripture.  Our popular thought has poisoned the pages
of translation after translation.. as people try to make a 'better mousetrap'
to catch the devil in, rather than letting God be God, and letting *HIM* do
it.  Plus what else can be said about missing the original intention of words
in the Bible.. due to translating from one language to another?  Just take a
look at the *ORIGINAL* words for "love" in that passionate exchange between
Jesus and Simon Peter, where 3 times Jesus asked Simon.. "Do you love Me?"
The original Greek is far more punctuated, and rather different than the
English.

   So what is?  What *IS* God's Word, so that we can differentiate what truly
*is* God's Wod from what the Bible is?  God's Word is many things.  Jesus is
the total conglomeration of all that God's Word is.  He is called, by John,
both "The Word" (in his Gospel) and named as "The Word of God" (In
Revelation).  The Bible says that God created all things *THROUGH* Jesus
Christ.  When God spoke the world into existence.. God's own Word proceeded
forth from His mouth, and orchestrated creation into its proper facetedness
and form.  This is where Jesus.. not being the Creator, but the *instrument*
of creation, has His place.  Jesus said that He can do nothing but what He
sees the Father do... and that He has been working, and His Father has been
working.  Who is the 'Father' of God's Word..?  God!  God is the progenitor
from whom Jesus flows.
   But what else is God's Word?  God's Word is anything that God has said.
It is the truth that keeps all things in balance.. It is the truth that holds
up the universe.. It is the life and power that sustains all life in our
universe.  Without God's Word as an integral part of our universe, it could
not exist.  It would cease to have any cohesion.. and would explode into
nothingness.  You ever wonder what keeps atoms from flying apart?  Well now
you know. :)
   
   But you see.. the Bible is not only what God, Himself, has said.  The
Bible *IS* inspired by the Holy Spirit.. and the truth in its pages (truth
which is more prevalent in this book than in any other [btw, if you didn't
know it, bible actually means 'library', or 'collection']) is powerful enough
to do what no other book can do -- change our hearts, souls, minds, and
spirits into something totally new.  But.. the Bible also has portions that
are clearly not God's Word.. such as Paul's opinion.. or an outcry of a heart
in a Psalm that is clearly missing what God has said (but which usually does
come to the realization *of* what God has said).  Opinions are not God's
Word.. neither is a statement made by a worshipper of an idol.  These are all
present in the Bible.. and yet we still call it God's Word.  Why?

   Truth be told.. one biiiiiiiiiig problem that many people are doing that
they don't realize.. is their flesh wants to claim to have the ability to
carry "God's Word" around in its own hands.  But you see.. you can't!  God's
Word is so huge and so infinite, that you can't truly carry it around in
human hands.  That is.. unless you *are* the Word of God, Himself.. i.e.
Jesus.  But.. many people hold onto this notion of doing so as a method of
self-deceiving self-exaltation.. daring to think themselves able to truly
*hold* God's Word in their own hands apart from handling Jesus.  To dare to
think you can put God's Word in a book is to truly discredit Who and What
God's Word is.

   But what about the human heart?  How can the human heart be a home for
God's Word?  (i.e. how can God's own Word, Jesus, come to live in our own
hearts?)  Interesting don't you think?  I'm not about to say we are infinite
beings like God.. but.. I am going to say that our hearts have dimensions
that no human (aside from Jesus) truly understands totally.. if well at all.
When Jesus lives in us, we become conduits *for* God's Word to act.  We
become.. as the Bible says.. His hands and His feet.  We are Jesus' Body.. We
are the conduits through which God's Word flows unto His creation.  Not the
*ONLY conduits.. but that is what God desires.. to let His Word flow through
us.

   What about eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His Blood?  Think about this.
It has nothing to do with physical bread and wine transubstantiating.  This
is taking into ourselves.. into our hearts.. into our minds.. our souls.. our
spirits.. the very substance of who Jesus is.. God's Word.  It is also..
taking into ourselves.. His very life force.  The Bible says that the life of
an animal or man is in the blood.. and thus.. Jesus' own life is found in His
Blood!  And when we walk in the footsteps of Christ.. When we turn our other
cheek.. when we forsake all and follow Him, we embrace and become one with
Him.. His life becomes part of our lives... and lives *IN* us!  *THIS* is how
we drink His blood.. and how we partake of His flesh -- Not by mere wine and
bread.. but by adherence to His-life example, and by inundating our minds
with God's truth, to the point that it becomes one with our spirit-man.. just
as physical food becomes one with our physical man.

   OK.. down to the nitty-gritty.  The main reason why the Bible is so
confusing is....... It's a spiritual book.  And.. That means.. that when one
person reads it, they may get something totally different out of it than
another.  Why?  Because.. get this.. The Bible, on account of God's Spirit..
is read totally differently by the person who has truly submitted to Him..
than by the person who is in rebellion against Him.  Plus.. the more you are
truly pursuing Him with utmost diligence, the more you will get out of this
wonderful.. yes.. "wonder" "full" book.  The more true-hearted effort you put
into seeking God out.. the more the Bible will refresh you.. and the more it
will enlighten your way unto life.  BUT!  The more you refuse to acknowledge
what it says that you *can* understand, the less you will be able to
understand the *REST* of what it's saying.  The person who has invited Jesus
to live in his/her heart, can understand Scripture.. even instantly at
times.. better than someone who does not know Him inside, who has studied
Bible texts for years.  Plus.. with every adherence to God's Word as you find
it via the Bible (a book I like calling "The Window"), you will find more and
more light shining upon your path.  Likewise.. with every refusal to believe
or obey God.. you lose out and things become more confusing and more
difficult.

   In the days when Moses was alive.. and leading the Israelites into the
promised land.. 12 spies were sent to look at what the land was going to be
like.  10 of these spies came back and denied what God had told them.. that
they were going to be able to take this land for their own.  This was because
they believed their own eyes, rather than trusting God's Word to them.  As a
result of this, all of the generation that left Egypt (aside from the other 2
spies and the young children) were killed off in the wilderness while they
wandered in the desert for 40 years.  This report by the 10 spies was what
God called an 'evil report'.  To go against God's truth.. as He has shown
you.. and to refuse to believe it.. and believe, instead, your own humanly
derived version of the truth.. is to say that your ability to see the truth
is better than God's.  And when a person does this in his life, he ends up
losing out on much, if not all of the blessing that God had prepared for him.
He loses the war, because he didn't side with.. God's Word.