Mountain top Musings: The Authority for the Self-Confrontation Journey

The basis for real change in one’s thinking, feelings and living is found in the Holy Bible. Even people that are not professing Christians have throughout history affirmed the value in the Word of God for living a good life. Many of our Founding Father’s were Christians. They believed in a personal God, the supernatural revelation of the Bible, the Person of the Holy Spirit, the salvation found only in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Some were Deists, which is a belief that God created the universe but then remains apart and indifferent to the daily happenings. The God of deism allows natural laws to rule and has no interaction with his creation. Thus, the Bible is not supernatural, the Holy Spirit is not involved in the world and all we are left with is our own morality and efforts.

Likely there were a few atheists, who do not believe in a God. However, the worldview of these men was one in which the principles and precepts of the Bible were evident in their values and thinking. Most of the Pilgrims, and early immigrants to North America came here to find freedom to practice their Christianity apart from governmental control.

Real Biblical change must involve having the Holy Scriptures as your authority. So, to pursue this real change one must have some acquaintance with the Bible. By that I mean you must put some serious time in to reading it and studying it. Then you must allow it to affect how you live! It is not just “head knowledge” but heart transformation that is needed by all of us.

God’s Word is eternal and permanent; therefore, it will be fulfilled. When you allow the truths and wisdom of scripture to guide your life the result must be good! See Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 5:18 and 24:35. The Bible is inspired by God is and our instruction book for training and equipping us for life. If you want a new way of living, a different pattern to follow or a guidebook to assist you in life then the Holy Bible is your only real choice! If you are reading this and you want a Bible that is understandable and has some helps in it please call me and I will make sure you get one. God’s Word teaches us, corrects us, trains us, and will equip you for all of life’s work. See 2 timothy 3: 16-17, 2 Peter 1:21, Psalm 25: 8-9, Hebrews 4:12, 1 Thessolonians 2:13 for some refence points.

The Bible is reliable because it is truth! Al of God’s Word is Truth! The Gospel (Good News) of salvation is the most important truth for each of us to grasp. We are to handle this truth properly, and not distort it. It is a living Word that will change you in ways you would have never dreamed of! It is a weapon to use against the forces of darkness and evil in our lives and in life. It will give you wisdom, clean you up and comfort you!

If you need hope the Bible will give it. When you need peace in your life, the Bible will provide it. Whatever sin you are shackled to, applying the medicine of God’s Word to that area of thought and/or behavior will result in a cure every time! There are so many verses I could list to support these claims that I will just tell you to google a subject and see what the Bible has in store for you! Go to BibleStudyTools.com or Biblegateway.com and you will find many useful tools. If you don’t have access to a computer call me up and I will come over and we can drink some coffee and discuss things. I will even bring the coffee! In closing I will share this one verse, Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever (NASB).

(Dave & Lisa Carroll are area missionaries with InFaith, America’s oldest Christian home mission agency. Source material for this article comes from the Biblical Counseling Foundation. You can contact Dave at 406.459.8935 or [email protected])