JAN 8

2 Timothy 3:16
Memorise 2 Timothy 3:16
“The mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

Another distinctive of Reformed Theology is the sole and absolute authority of the Scripture. The Reformers asserted that the Bible alone, not the church, has authority over believers. They upheld the infallible, inerrant and inspired Word of God as the only rule of faith and practice. This was entirely foreign to the Roman Catholic who held its members captive by its traditions, anathemas, encyclicals and papal bulls.

Through the “God-breathed” Word, believers have the sure knowledge of God and His Son Jesus Christ, His work in salvation as well as His second coming. Believers will also have the courage to stand against error and heresies. The Bible is entirely sufficient to guide us as to what to believe and how to live. Note that it is “All Scripture”, meaning all of its parts, every book, every jot and tittle. Every single word is truth from the beginning. There is not a single speck of untruth in Scripture.

Dear teen, the Bible is given to us not by man but by God Himself. It is totally reliable and useful for all of life, correcting and reproving us of our sins in order to get right with God, with others and with ourselves. What a book! Any one of the Reformers would readily say that the Bible is the book that has made the greatest impact on their lives. I wonder how many of you teens would be able to say that? So many tend to pick other books that have made a deeper impression on them, while others might claim the Bible is important to them but in reality spend more time on secular books. When you are worried about something, do you reach for your Bible? When someone counsels you to do something, do you readily accept this counsel or do you test whether this is good advice by the yardstick of God’s truth? If you are not sure what you are planning to do is right or wrong, do you automatically search the scriptures? Do search your heart on why you do not allow the Bible to have authority over your life!

Thought: It is the Word of God that equips God’s people to do the work of God.

Prayer: Most merciful Father in heaven, help me to spend time to read and study Your Word and thereby profit from it.