Journey to The Journey

This past weekend I had a bonfire in my backyard of trash lumber and yard waste. It began with some kindling, but I quickly piled things on until I had a massive pyre built. Before long it was fully ablaze. It was so hot that I could barely stand to get close to it for more than a few second to "stir" it around as it burned. In a matter of a couple of hours, all of that wood was reduced to a pile of ashes. This is what I think of when I read, "our God is a consuming fire."

One of my favorite things about studying the Bible is digging into the words. We all agree that words matter, but nowhere is this more apparent than in our study of the scriptures. The challenge we face every time we approach God's word is to uncover the meaning of the text. Everyone agrees that the human authors of scripture wrote to convey a message with meaning. In many cases that meaning is explicit and clearly defined. In others it is veiled in symbolism or poetic language and requires some interpretation from the reader. Regardless though, there can only ever be one meaning...that which was intended. And when trying to derive the meaning, the words play an important role. How does each word serve to contribute and combine to convey that meaning? That is the goal at hand for us.

Many of us may object to the old saying, "knowledge is power," because we don't feel very powerful. In fact, we may more often than not struggle to believe and implement what we know to be true. The struggle of fear and doubt is not something that is foreign to the Christian. If it were, then the encouragement we find in scriptures like 1 Peter would be unnecessary. Instead, God has graciously inspired men like Peter to write letters of encouragement to his people because he knows our propensity for doubting.