Rise up and Reveal God's Grace

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Laity Sunday 19th Sunday after Pentecost Rise Up and Reveal God’s Grace Year C Opening Song Welcome Call to Worship We are all invited to God’s nearness in Jesus Christ. We know Jesus is God’s grace for the life of the world. We look for grace revealed in our togetherness and in the lives those beyond our church walls. We know our together life in Christ is never gated or exclusive. In every place, we discover what it means to be faithful – with you – to make all things new. And we hear your invitation to help heal and repair the world’s shattered wholeness. Song - Here I am Lord UMH 593 Children’s Sermon Hello, children of God! Today I am going to need a volunteer…Who would like to be my special helper this morning? (Select a student, and hand him/her a pen and paper) Now, here’s what I need you to do. I am going to tell you what to write, and I want you to put it down on the paper, okay? So, write down what I say. (Come up with a simple phrase or sentence for the child to write on the paper.) Okay, guys, take a peek here. Who came up with the words on this paper? Did (student’s name) really think of what to say? She/he might have written the message down, but it came from my brain and mouth, didn’t it? These are my words, and I just used her/him to put them down and share with you. You know, this is how the Bible was written, in a way. Some people get confused, and they don’t understand how we can be sure that the Bible is true. After all, there are a lot of people who contributed to the Bible, right? Kings and prophets and poets and friends of Jesus and people writing letters…with all of those authors and people spanning such a range of time and area, how can we know that these are really God’s words? Well, there is a lot of research and history that goes into the authentic truth of the Bible, but for us it’s important to note that the Bible is the word of GOD and is given to us by Him. God used people throughout history to share His message, but the words are truly God’s words. He communicated to people and told them what to say, so people took the paper and wrote things. But the ideas and meaning all came from God. He inspired the Bible. Speaking of which, in our lesson today we heard that the Bible is “breathed out by God.” This is actually what is meant by the term “inspired”: it means it is breathed from God. Take a look at this (hold up party horn, instrument, or balloon): On its own, this is just a bit of floppy material. It can’t really do much, can it? But when I put my breath into it (blow into instrument/balloon), something happens! With the inspiration of my air going into this, it kind of comes to life! Well, that’s what happens with the Bible. God breathed out those words and gave the Bible life…and the Bible will help bring inspiration into our lives! There are a lot of amazing things in the Bible. You can read stories of people in the past, and you can read messages from God to His people. You can also find beautiful Scripture with poetry. You can read the story of the life of Jesus and how He came to earth. And you can find messages that help us know how to live our lives and be followers of Jesus. There is so much to discover in the Bible. It is a huge blessing that we have it There is so much to discover in the Bible. It is a huge blessing that we have it and that we can be confident of its truth and meaning for us. God wants to communicate His heart and how much He cares for us and loves us. When we read the Bible, we can be confident it contains the words of God. Isn’t that great? It is a gift from Him! Let’s pray to thank God for that gift, and don’t forget to read your Bibles! Dear God, Thank you for the Bible We know that it is true And it is inspired by You Help us to be faithful to read it And help us understand what it means Thank you for your love We love you, God! Thank you for Jesus In His name, Amen! Baptism (name of the baby) UMH 39 Affirmation of Faith UMH 885 Scripture 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5 Sermon Rise Up and Reveal God’s Grace On this laity Sunday, our most important lesson for the day – the bible is relevant. John Wesley and many other church leaders tell us the scripture is primary to our faith. Martin Luther said By Scripture Alone! Preach the Gospel to Yourself Daily Preach the Gospel to One Another Daily Scripture for the Soul, Medicine for the Body Questions for Reflection The Bible will always be relevant. It will always speak to us because it is not from us, it is from God and it has some wonderful things to teach us. Especially in how God sees us. The world could care less about us. But listen to what God says about us in the N.T. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke--we are called the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In the Gospel of John we are called friends of Jesus. In Acts we are people of the Way. In Romans we are joint heirs with Christ, sharing his inheritance. In Corinthians we are a temple--a dwelling place of God. In Galatians we are sons and daughters of God--one in Christ. In Ephesians we're saints, citizens with the rest of God's family. In Philippians we are citizens of heaven, right now. In Colossians we are hidden with Christ in God. In Thessalonians we are chosen of God, holy and dearly loved. In Timothy we are those who have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. In Titus we are those who have been set apart according to God's doing. In Philemon we are soldiers. In Hebrews we are those who have been purified by the offering of our great high priest. In James we are brothers and sisters. In Peter we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. In John's letters we are children of God who will resemble Christ when Christ returns. In Jude we are those who are called, beloved in God. And in Revelation we are those whose names are written in the book of life. Where else can you hear such powerful affirmation? Not out there. The world says your feet and breath stink, that you don't drive the right kind of car or eat the right kind of foods or dress right. But the Bible helps us walk a little taller. It says we are the children of God. The importance of scripture is the last lesson from 2 Timothy on what it means to be a church leader. This may well be one of the most important lessons – That we are to read the bible for ourselves. But it is also important to develop a relationship with the scripture in order to develop a relationship with Christ. The writer starts out this text by saying as for you young man, continue with the things that you have been taught all of your life. One of those things is to read the bible. An elderly man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early reading from his old worn out Bible. His grandson, who wanted to be just like him, tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, “Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?” The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.” The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You will have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was “impossible to carry water in a basket,” and he went to get a bucket instead. The grandfather said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got far at all. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Papa, it’s useless!” “So you think it is useless?” The old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean. “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out.” (6) That is the work of God in our lives to change us from the inside out and to slowly transform us into the image of God’s Son. Millions of Christians though the ages will testify that is what happened to them when they faithfully studied the scriptures. God revealed Himself to them. God showed them what He wanted them to do. And God purified them and molded them into the image of Christ. 6. From the Internet. Source unknown. Many people read the bible for many different reasons. But it teaches each of us a lesson in life. I heard a story of a young fellow who desperately wanted a car for his sixteenth birthday. That is all he talked about and he knew his parents had gotten the message. When the day finally arrived, he looked out the window hopefully thinking that surely his new car would be there. But to his great disappointment, it wasn’t. There was no car at all. He asked his parents why he hadn’t gotten the car. The father responded, “Son, there are three reasons. First, your grades are bad and you never seem to study like you should. Secondly, you don’t go to church any more and you don’t read the Bible every night. And thirdly you have got that long hair and you won’t cut it.” “Well, what do I need to do,” asked the son, “to be able to get my car?” “It is very simple,” the dad said, “You need to study hard and raise your grades. You need to go to church and read your Bible every night and you need to get that long hair cut.” Six months passed and the young man came back to his father. “Dad, It has been six months now and I want you to know I’ve made a lot of improvements. In fact, I am getting three A’s and a B this semester. So you see, I have been studying hard. And I have been going to church every Sunday and reading my Bible every night.” The father’s said, “I know son, and I am proud of you. But you still haven’t gotten your hair cut.” The son’s face lit up. “Yes, dad, I know, but I have discovered in reading the Bible that Jesus had long hair too.” The fathers reply was really disarming. “Yes, son, I realize that, but if you will keep reading the Bible, you will also discover that Jesus walked everywhere He went!” Well, that is not all we’ll discover if we keep reading the Bible I still keep my first bible on my desk as a reference. My aunt gave it to my for Christmas when I was 7. We would have family bible study on the bible stories, and I wanted to read the stories for myself. I knew the stories, but I did not really know the words. As a teenager I was convinced that the bible was a magical book with the answers to all of my problems. When I would turn to a chapter and it didn’t name my friends and circumstance specifically I stopped reading it. In college, I went to a bible study that I loved. As a freshman I read the entire bible and got scared at all of the rules. At the end of college, I thought the world was coming to an end. When it didn’t’ I studied to understand what the bible actually said. From there I went to seminary to learn more. I finally came to understand what the bible said, when I had to teach it. UMW asked me to write a mission study on Corinthians. So I studied Paul for a year and went to Greece, Turkey and Rome. The best way to learn, is to have to explain it to everyone else. Now, I have a week long discipline of studying the text and prepping for my sermon every week. And even now, there is so much more for me to learn about the bible. The bible is a living text that can interact with our lives. It is a revelation of how God works in our lives to give us a message. Our text says that every scripture is inspired by God. Let's take that apart. The word "inspired" is a unique word. This is the only time it occurs in the New Testament. It refers to wisdom that comes from God, or quite literally, God's Spirit has been infused or breathed upon it. Therefore, more than just the creative thoughts or opinion of some authors writing on papyrus, scripture has a unique divine authority unlike any other writing. That authority, that power, is shown in what God's word accomplishes. It inspired faith with a wisdom that transcends human knowledge. It teaches, reproofs, and corrects. It trains people in righteousness, equipping them for every good work. The power and the authority of scripture are found in what it does. Scott Suskovic The church still struggles with that term inspired by God. What does it mean to live by the bible? For instance, in 1 Timothy, the writer says that women should never teach men. So does that mean that women should not be preachers? Some churches say yes, some say no. As the Methodist church struggles with splitting, on the surface it seems the disagreement is about homosexuality. When the disagreement is about is text – All Scripture is inspired by God. What does inspired mean? Do we take everything in the bible literally? How far do we go in interpreting what the bible teaches us. Our founder, John Wesley, had a particular notion about inspiration. He believed in double-inspiration. The Spirit of God not only inspired those who wrote it, but continually inspires and supernaturally assists those who read it with earnest prayer. Christianglobe Networks, Inc., Faith Breaks: Thoughts On Making It A Good Day, by J. Howard Olds We have to read the bible for ourselves in order to look at our faith. There are no easy answers for any of us. The writer tells Timothy – preach the word. Be ready to do it whether it is convenient or inconvenient. He says that the bible corrects, confronts, and encouraged with patience and instruction. The problem is Nearly 80 percent of Americans say the Bible is the most influential book in human history and 42 percent say reading the Bible is “very important” to them. Nonetheless, only 17 percent of Americans report reading the Bible daily and 45 percent say they rarely or never read it. (2) I’m not going to ask for a show of hands. You know which group you belong to. How many of us have actually read the bible to be inspired by it? Charles H. Spurgeon once said, "There is no need to defend a lion when he is being attacked. All we have to do is open the gate and let the lion out. The lion will defend itself." Martin Niemoeller was a German pastor who opposed Hitler during World War II and thus spent much of the war in German prison camps. They took from him everything except his Bible. After his release, Niemoeller gave this testimony about the Bible: "What did this Book mean to me during the long and weary years of solitary confinement and then for the last four years at Dauchau? The word of God was simply everything to me, comfort and strength, guidance and hope, master of my days and companion of my nights, the bread that kept me from starvation and the water of life that refreshed my soul." Dynamic Preaching, The Ritz Collection, by Eric Ritz The bible is everything to us – our inspiration, our revelation, our guidance, our example of what it means to be loved and to love others. Maybe you saw the special report Wednesday night about Paul Reed. Paul is a Viet Nam Vet who pulled out some of his souvenirs and booty from the war. Some of which was a Diary and pictures. He decided to translate. In pages of that diary found just another soldier, Nam Van Nia, who missed his wife and family. Who was lonely. Cold all those things he experienced. Decided to go back and take stuff back. When did, found the soldier. Meeting brought about healing. Paul Reed, holding the diary, told Vietnamese Vet, "This small book taught me not to hate you." If an ordinary diary can do that just think what the Bible can do. This small book teaches us just how much God loves us. The Bible is our Book, the foundation of all that we believe and the story of our relationship with God. Read it, get to know it. This is the word of the Lord for this day. Rising up and revealing God’s grace is living the love that we experience in the bible. Amen. Song – Seek Ye First UMH 405 Prayers of the People Merciful God, powerful and wonderful, eternally present and graciously close, we are grateful for what you have given us in Jesus Christ, life and love without end. Prompted by your Spirit and encouraged by your faithfulness, we lift to you the cares and concerns of our hearts, the burdens and the worries of our lives. We pray that the sick would be healed, that the broken would be mended, that the mournful would be comforted. We pray that warriors would yield to peace, that leaders would gain wisdom, that the forsaken would be gathered in. We pray that the sorrowful would be consoled, that the poor would be lifted up, that the anxious would be released. We pray for all that you would have us pray. We pray for those for whom no one prays. We pray all of these things in the name of the one ceaselessly praying for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen (Presbyterian Outlook, John Wurster) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Many of us live in a world where speed is valued. We’re surrounded by ads with runners who win the race, cars which reach top speed first, stocks which lead the market. Yet Paul’s writing encourages our persistence in standing on the foundation of our faith. He writes “continue in what you have learned…knowing from whom you learned it…be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Just the opposite of the push for “do it fast”. One place this makes good sense is in our stewardship of financial resources. Common wisdom says “slow and steady wins the race”, and “dollar cost averaging” to serve people best over a life-time. Here at ____________, we’re grateful for every offering, yet we also know it’s the regular, persistent, weekly or monthly contributions which are the foundation of our finances. So as you continue to grow in faith, let that show in the way you make a financial investment in this congregation and in our ministries. Persistent participation over “make a fast, one-time contribution” speed! Prayer of Thanksgiving We give you thanks, God of all creation, for your persistence in caring – and in challenging US to care — for all your creatures, and for the whole of this place we call our earthly home. May these gifts be utilized to their full potential, supporting the ministries of this congregation in this place, and to the ends of the earth. AMEN Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook We will go, Lord, into the world, telling and retelling the story with other believers, taking the gospel and making disciples among all the peoples with whom we come in contact. We will go, knowing you will be with us. You, O God, to whom we would in these moments, pour out our lives in service and in thanksgiving. But we know the barriers that stand in our way. We cannot pour ourselves out to you fully as individuals with unconfessed sin in our lives. We cannot pour ourselves out to you fully as your body when we are in conflict with others. So, hear our confession, forgive and deliver us, and give us courage to offer your peace to one another. Community Time Benediction Leader: Go into the world, sharing yourself and proclaiming God’s lovingkindness, justice, and peace, in words and deeds that bring life and hope. Pastor: The Triune God, Creator, Redeemer, and Living Spirit, is with you today and every day, forever and always. Amen Additional illustrations ChristianGlobe Network, Inc., , by Billy D. Strayhorn It is time we took seriously our Christbody responsibility to "learn the ABCs" - learn "About the Bible in Church." Unless we read it, study it, learn what's in it and feel comfortable with it in our hands and on our tongues, we cannot truly love the Word of God. Instead, we are intimidated by it, afraid of it, shocked by it or simply remain ignorant of it. LS There was a woman who called her pastor late one night in a panic and said, "Pastor, quickly, tell me what I believe." Another believer from a different church who challenged her about her beliefs had cornered her. She quickly found that she could not articulate the basic teachings of her church. "Pastor, quickly, tell me what I believe." There may be more than one person gathering in worship this morning who, if hard pressed, may be less than clear about what they believe. Are you one? Where does one start in establishing a baseline for belief? Church doctrine? Parental teaching? The local pastor? Inner instinct? Which verse is the most dangerous? It is this one that says, "All scripture is God-breathed" (2 Timothy 2:16) or "All scripture is inspired," depending on which version or translation you use. To be perfectly honest, perhaps this is not the most dangerous verse, but as one writer says it is the mother of all proof texts. As the bumper sticker has it, "The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it." After all, this is God's word we are talking about. As to why I call this verse dangerous, stay tuned. There is another danger. People think that scripture — because it is "God-breathed" or "inspired" — is somehow magical in the way it can give guidance. "Pastor, can you give me a few verses that will help strengthen my marriage or help me be a better father or to get my daughter to clean up her room?" Have you ever been faced with a difficult decision and gone to the Bible for assistance? Eyes closed, Bible on its spine in your lap, let it fall open, finger points to a place on the page, and voilá, God's will for your life is before you. Have you ever tried it? My sweetie has, back in the days before her sanctification was complete. Christie grew up in Venezuela, but as is often the case with the children of Americans working overseas, when it came time for high school, she came back to the states to a school in New England. She came to dislike it intensely, as much for being separated from her family as anything else. She wanted to come home. She decided to get some divine guidance: Bible on the lap, eyes closed, and the moving finger magically guided. She opened her eyes to see what passage she had been "guided to" and read in astonishment from Jeremiah 38:2: "Thus says the Lord, he who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But he who goes forth to the Chaldeans shall live." By the sword? The famine? Gracious! She was on the phone to Caracas that night and within two weeks she was back in South America. After all, "All scripture is inspired...." That is like using the Bible as an Ouija Board! William Sloane Coffin once bemoaned "Christians use the Bible much as a drunk does a lamppost — more for support than for illumination." David Leininger You laugh, but many adults wouldn’t fare much better in describing the New Testament. You may have seen that list on the Internet of the eight signs that you are not reading your Bible enough: 1. The pastor announces the sermon is from Galatians . . . and you check the table of contents. 2. You think Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have had a few hit songs during the 60s. 3. You open to the Gospel of Luke and a WWII Savings Bond falls out. 4. Your favorite Old Testament patriarch is Hercules. 5. You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn’t listed in either the concordance or the table of contents. 6. Catching the kids reading the Song of Solomon, you demand: “Who gave you this stuff?” 7. You keep falling for it every time when pastor tells you to turn to First Condominiums. 8. And the No. 1 sign you may not be reading your Bible enough: The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: “Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His Ark of Many Colors.” (Author unknown) St. Paul writes to his young protégé Timothy and he gives him this admonition, “But as for you, Permit me an analogy. Imagine that there is a mosquito flying around your bare arm. Instead of swatting that mosquito, you decide to communicate with it. You try to convince the mosquito not to bite you. You suggest to the mosquito that your spouse is much tastier than you are. That would be a frustrating conversation, don’t you think trying to talk to a mosquito? Now, imagine the Creator of the universe trying to communicate with you and me. God is beyond space and time. We can’t even imagine a world without space and time. We say God is Spirit. What does that mean, really? Beats me. The only thing we really know about God is what God chooses to reveal. That is what the Bible is all about. The Bible is not a book of theology. Theology is, of course, the study of God. How absurd. We have the capacity to study mosquitoes. Imagine mosquitoes coming together to study us. It is just as absurd to say that, by forming a study group we are able to capture the nature of God. The Bible is not a book of theology, but of revelation. God wanted to communicate with human creatures. The Bible is God’s attempt to reach out to us. Through the Bible God seeks to reveal His nature and His plan. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” while back, one of our pollsters asked people whether or not they believed the Bible to be the “revealed Word of God” or merely a “great piece of literature.” Over 80% of them said they believed it to be the “revealed Word of God” - yet more than half of them could not name even one book in the New Testament. That reminds me of one of my most embarrassing moment. A few years ago I was coming from a trip overseas back into the United States through Chicago. I think it was the only time I’ve ever been through customs in Chicago. And, I think Chicago is the worst place in the nation to go through customs. As is always the case, I was happy to get back into this country, and anxious to move through customs. On that particular trip, I had a very close schedule with a place that would take me to Nashville. So I needed to get through customs as rapidly as possible. The customs officer obviously sensed my anxiety, and I guess she was trying to do as much as she could to facilitate the process. So, after I had told her about my close plane connection, she asked, “What is your vocation?” Now I don’t know what that had to do with it - but that was the question she asked. Without hesitation, I said, “I’m a preacher.” Without hesitation, she said, “Name the first five books of the Old Testament.” Now you may find this hard to believe, and I’m really embarrassed to tell you this - I went totally blank. Genesis, Exodus - and I couldn’t get any further. I went totally blank. I share that to make a point. The point is in a question: Is there any merit in being able to name the books of the Bible or in being the 80% of our nation who believe that the Bible is the “revealed word of God” if we are not making that Word “the whole and sole rule of our Christian faith and practice.”? So let me go on with my theme: The Bible is more than a book. Get a part of our scripture lesson firmly in mind, verses 14-17: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Note first that more than a book, the Bible is a revelation of and an encounter with the Living God. Moses experienced that encounter when confronted by the burning bush that was not consumed, and out of that bush heard the voice of God. “I want to know one thing - the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He had written it down in a book. 0, give me that book! At any price, give me that book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be “a man of one book”. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of man. I sit down alone: only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to heaven.” (Sermons, I, 31—32) ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Collected Sermons, by Maxie Dunnam Claude was a rather normal young adult. One day Claude decided he would read the Bible from cover to cover. He plowed through the Pentateuch, and found the war stories of Joshua, Judges, Kings and Chronicles to be surprisingly interesting. Then one day, while reading the Psalms, Claude came across Psalm 37:21. The verse reads, “The wicked borrow and do not repay.” Suddenly, Claude remembered the $500 he had borrowed from his parents and promised to repay, but never did. Convicted by the Scriptures, Claude asked God for forgiveness and wrote a check to his parents. Scripture, said Paul, is presently profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. It is possible to say the right thing in the wrong way and you wind up saying the wrong thing even though it is truth. There was a motorist that was driving in the country when he came upon a priest and a rabbi standing on the shoulder of the road and they were fishing. Next to them was a sign that read, "Turn around. The end is near." The motorist was a very unreligious person. He rolled down the window and said, "You bunch of religious nuts, why don't you mind your own business!" A few second later, the two fishermen heard tires screech and then a splash into the lake. The rabbi turned to the priest and said, "I told you we should have just written, 'Bridge out.'" There was a lady who was taking care of a little six year old girl while her mother was away and she wanted to really make sure she was a good hostess, so she got up early the first morning and prepared a big breakfast of ham and eggs. When the little girl came down she looked at her and said, "My mother always fixes biscuits." This lady, wanting to make sure that the neighbor felt like her daughter had been well taken care of, went to the store and bought flour, milk, Crisco, and slaved over a hot stove and put out the best home-made biscuits she could possibly fix. When she put one in front of the little girl the little girl looked at her and said, "No thank you." The lady said, "I thought you said your mother always fixes biscuits for breakfast." The little girl said, "She does, but I don't eat them." Don't get discouraged when you prepare a God-sized message. There are going to be times you are going to labor over the hot stove of preparation; going to pour your blood, your sweat, your tears, your prayer, your study, your hard work into that message and preach it to the best of your ability and people will not receive it, but that is not your problem. So, do you believe in the authority of Scripture? If you do, you know that the Bible is more than a book – it is the revelation and an encounter with the Living God. It is an invitation – an invitation to salvation and eternal life. And it is a blueprint for living. Within it is the guide for the way we are to pattern our life – and at the heart of that is the call to holiness. MaxieDunnam.com, MaxieDunnam.com, by Maxie Dunnam So, do you believe in the authority of Scripture? If you do, you know that the Bible is more than a book – it is the revelation and an encounter with the Living God. It is an invitation – an invitation to salvation and eternal life. And it is a blueprint for living. Within it is the guide for the way we are to pattern our life – and at the heart of that is the call to holiness. Grace comes to us in all sorts of ways. I had a marvelous visit this past week with Ernie Felts, a member of this congregation. Ernie has had a tough time of it; malignancy and extensive treatment for that interrupted by back surgery. Ernie came to see me on Labor Day -- called and said he wanted to bring us a little gift. He brought a cassette tape, aptly titled "Country Boy...City Boy" -- he thought I'd like the title, but he knew the music was exceptional and I would get great pleasure out of it. He also brought me a letter which I didn't read until after our delightful hour's visit. Let me read you a part of his letter. When the world gets sorta heavy on me, God directs my mind to my cupboard of miracles and memories there I receive sustenance for the present and nourishment for the future. What is in my cupboard? The Word of God -The Bible -, God's miracles, miracles of God that I have seen happen to others that I know personally, and miracles that have taken place in my life. Isn't that beautiful? Is the Bible in your cupboard? Are memories of God's grace working in your life in that cupboard? In our conversation last Monday, Ernie talked about all the people he had met during these months of suffering and illness, in the doctor's office, in the hospital, waiting for radiation treatment -- black, white, rich, poor. Our problems and sufferings, Ernie said, is the common denominator that brings us together. Then he added, "the ground around the cross is always level." "Bill Bentley moved to the mountains of Southern Mexico near Guatemala in 1938. He went there to translate the Bible into the language of a remote tribe in those mountains, the Tzeltals. His fiancee, Marianna, was serving a neighboring tribe. They went back to Pennsylvania to be married, but six days before the wedding Bill died of a heart attack. "Marianna was crushed. God had called her to go to the Tzeltals with Bill. Now, even without him she would go back. After spending six years there alone learning the language, Marianna was joined by Florence, a missionary nurse. For the first eight years their work met with suspicion, rejection, and hostility from the Tzeltals; the missionaries were unwanted and misunderstood. But they stuck it out. "By 1965, after more than twenty years, they had completed the translation of the New Testament into two dialects. Then a miracle took place. More than seventy congregations of Christians grew from the seed they planted. Suspicion became faith, rejection became acceptance, hostility became Christian love. The Tzeltals call God’s word `good seed’; it had taken root. Twenty-one years of life by two single women and the Word of God grew. They accepted another assignment. Twenty-one years later they returned. "What a reunion that was! Thousands of Tzeltal people lined the way to greet them. In the twenty-one years since they had left, the seventy-two congregations they founded had become 322. When they had left there were six thousand believers. When they returned there were forty-four thousand. One-third of the Tzeltals were practicing Christians. Hallelujah for the Word of God! "What other book could do that? If you left a physics text, a biography of a great man, a collection of short stories, a folio of poetry--could any of those books have done what the Bible did for the Tzeltals? No! Only the Word of God can do that. For the word of God is living and active." (1)