Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

Part Three in this series considers sound and consistent hermeneutical principles of interpretation as the only way to really understand the biblical text . There is some discussion of how some hermeneutical systems differ from one another and where everyone is generally agreed on principles.

Often in life we do not know the value of what we already possessed. We will find this to be true in the Book of Ruth of a woman named Naomi. Many of us learn this same lesson in one way or another. Often in hindsight we realize we did not fully appreciate the value of some blessing in our life at the time we received the blessing...we only understood it later.

Continuing with our series on why we believe the Bible is the Word of God. We are using the acrostic MAPS and we have already covered Manuscripts and Archaeology. Part Two concentrates on Prophetic Fulfillment and Scientific Accuracy.

Why believe the Bible is the Word of God? Since all of our beliefs are derived from the Bible this is a great question. After all what makes the Bible unique among all the other religious books ever written which claim to be some form of absolute truth? So why is the Bible any different? How do we even know the Bible we have is anything like the Bible that was written? Using the acrostic MAPS as a guide we can defend the Bible: Manuscripts Archaeology Prophecy Science Part One of this series concentrates on the first two categories: Manuscripts and Archaeology.

The introduction of the Book of Ruth warns of the danger of placing pragmatism over principle. We are, just like the people in this story, often tempted to resort to a pragmatic solution, rather than one that is founded upon faith and rooted in principle. Our natural tendency is just to utilize the most pragmatic solution because it is so obvious.

Challenging authority is suddenly very popular and in vogue and it often seems easy to justify this attitude because of well-publicized scandals involving the abuse of authority or stupid decisions involving a misuse of authority by leaders both sacred and secular. If everyone is constantly challenging authority soon there is no authority left to challenge and anarchy reigns. Letting everyone do what is right in their own eyes soon leads to confusion and chaos. What is true in society can also be true in the church; therefore, the author of Hebrews wants to end his letter with an exhortation to leaders and those they lead, because it’s easy to take our leaders for granted.

Here in the last chapter the author of Hebrews decides to wrap things up, but before he does he quickly gives us specific, concise, and practical exhortations in a bullet point fashion regarding our actions toward others and attitudes within ourselves.

The discipline of children is a delicate thing. Too much discipline is a problem and too little discipline is a problem. Yet all children need the training of discipline, even God’s children. learning to receive and respond to proper discipline is a key factor in how we run the race of faith.

The author of Hebrews says we are in an amazing race. However we do not all run this race in the same way. This text gives us the rules of the race.

There are two sides to faith. There is a side that risks. This is the side that steps out in bold confidence in the power of God daring to do the seemingly impossible and such faith receives great victory. The other side of faith is the faith that rests. This is the side that patiently endures great hardship calmly trusting in God and such faith reckons that God’s grace will be sufficient to sustain them in the trial. In this text we see that the men and women listed needed one side of faith or the other depending on whether they were called to triumphs or tragedies.

Our lives are made up of decisions. Decisions often produce their own domino effect and the quality of our lives are often more related to our decisions about our circumstances rather than about the circumstances themselves. These verse contemplate the faith of Moses’ parents and Moses’ own faith and how the decisions they made impacted their lives.

The stories of Isaac, of Jacob and Joseph, who all died without receiving their earthly inheritance are discussed. In blessing their children it may not seem that these men of faith did all that much but in truth they understood their main responsibility was to create a legacy of faith for the next generation.

The faith of Abraham is discussed in terms of the obstacles he faced and overcame.

The faith of Noah is discussed. He had a faith willing to operate in terms of deferred satisfaction and that responded to God's Word.

In concluding the previous warning section, the author mentioned the theme of living by faith. Now he sets forth some fundamental considerations about faith: its basic composition, the commendation of distinction associated with it, and the way faith responds to God.