The Appropriate Role of Scripture in the Church

2 Timothy 3: 14-17
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Have you ever had the experience of spending time with a teenage girl that is completely obsessed with say, Justin Bieber or One Direction? Somehow every conversation comes back to this obsession, they know everything about them, and they get so excited that they can't control themselves and they must share whatever new piece of information they have discovered. Well this was me as a teenager, only I didn't nerd out over some boy band but in fact over the Bible. When I started reading it for myself I couldn't get enough. I would run down the hall to tell my dad the cool new connection I had discovered. I devoured the Bible. 

Do you remember the first time you read something in the Bible and it actually applied to your life? Or the first time you recognized the words from a song as words from scripture? Do you remember the moment when the genealogy became more than a list of names you can't pronounce but in fact a bridge between the two Testaments? If not, I encourage you to nerd out a bit and discover these moments for yourself. 

The scriptures have the ability to come alive. We read the stories to children and their faces light up with excitement and wonder. There are times when you open the Bible and the words are exactly what you needed to hear. This is the living breathing word of God. These stories, these words of wisdom, and letters can be read, dissected, and preached time and time again and what your heart hears is exactly what you need at the time.

If we are to proclaim the Gospel, then we must know what the Gospel says. If we are to build up the fellowship of the Body then we need the building blocks for the Body to stand on. And to be fully equipped for use in  Christian Service then we need the "God Breathed words designed for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." 

These words hold the very basis of everything we believe in. This is more than a book. This is more than something we have to or should be reading. This is our connection to God. This is where we find our history, guidance for the present, and the promise of tomorrow. We would be lost without these Holy Words.