Dr. Wilbur Chapman starts off this devotion by sharing his rule for Christian living: “My rule for Christian living is this: anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it.”1 This is very sound advice and I totally agree with his four-fold rule.
E. Stanley Jones adds his four-fold description of how the Bible can affect every aspect of who we are, if we are willing to live by its precepts, when he shared the following: “The Bible redirects my will, cleanses my emotions, enlightens my mind, and quickens my total being.”2 My friends the Bible is in the transformation business and if we allow it, the Scriptures will make every aspect of our body, mind, and soul Christ centered.
Continuing with this theme of the Bible being the golden rule for living, John Flavel provides us with great insight with his three-fold proclamation on life: “The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.”3 As Christians we soon come to realize, as we walk with the Lord, that the Bible is our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. It’s our instruction manual and guidebook that teaches us, in the words of Flavel, how to live, suffer, and die.
And A. W. Tozer tells us why we need this supernatural book called the Bible in order to learn the answers to the most foundational questions in life, when he stated: “The Holy Scriptures tell us what we could never learn any other way: they tell us what we are, who we are, how we got here, why we are here and what we are required to do while we remain here.”4 Tozer’s five-fold list of questions can only find adequate answers if they are divinely revealed to us. And the only book of divine revelation given to man is the Bible.
To sum up what Chapman, Jones, Flavel, and Tozer have shared in a single sentence I would like to close with this distilled wisdom from Charles Spurgeon who once said: “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”5
1 The Word of God – Quotations and Illustrations | Precept Austin
2 https://www.stresslesscountry.com/quotesbible.html
3 Profiting from the Puritans for Devotional Reading – Banner of Truth UK
4 The Word of God – Quotations and Illustrations | Precept Austin
5 45 Charles Spurgeon Quotes – Spurgeon Quotes on Faith (christianity.com)