Be honest...if you're a parent, you've said those very same things to your children. It's the discussion that we all promised ourselves when we were kids that we would NEVER have with our children! We would never subject our children to DOUBLE STANDARDS! But, we do it still. If it is so easy to set your own standards, make up your own rules, then how does anybody know what the REAL rules and standards are? Are they up for grabs? Jesus had an interesting encounter with an unlikely stranger that understood exactly who makes the rules and sets the standards. Watch as the story unfolds....

Story of the Centurion (Luke 7:1-10)...a man under authority.. a man hated by the Jews  for what his army did and what his nation stood for...a man that didn't know Christ/the Messiah from the man in the moon (he only knew what he saw - a man able to control nature)...probably the most unlikely believer in the world. But, he understood that we need rules and standards...

What would happen to his soldiers if there were no rules? Chaos and rebellion; nothing would get done, it would not be an army... In Jesus' day, standard measure of length - cubit - fingertip to elbow...imagine the fights that broke out...guy with the longest arm wins... Now, Bureau of Standards...what would happen with out them? Go to the gas station and check the pumps, what if each gas station decided how much a gallon was? Instead of a meter, they would probably have idiot lights that tell you when you get enough gas in your car...In order to live in a civilized world, we must have rules and standards. He understood who makes the rules. Here's the snag...we can all agree that we need rules, but whose rules are we going to follow?

Some of our rules and standards are based on falsehood - story of the ham with the cut off end...hams don't have to have the ends cut off before they are cooked, but it became a rule in that family...imagine how much good ham was wasted over the years - breaks my heart..

It's like the idea that all good people go to heaven...where does that come from? Is that written down anywhere? It's scary to think that a lot of people trust their eternal destiny to assumption and heresay... Some rules are based on convenience - like the drama, double standard. We use one set of rules for ourselves and another set for everyone else...and the easier set is always reserved for ourselves!

The underlying problem is this: we follow rules that we make, but we don't have the ability to make absolute rules or set absolute standards, we can only make relative rules, and relative rules and standards will eventually fail...no matter how well intentioned we are, our limitations as mortal creatures prevent us from coming up with reliable standards on our own...We have to rely on a more dependable source than ourselves in order to make absolute rules...Hear the Golden rule?: Do unto others...he who has all the gold makes the rules...cute...some truth...the one with the ultimate power is the one that can make the real rules  because he can always enforce them...the Centurion understood this...and acted on it.  Who has the power to make the rules of life? Only God...

What are the rules? Where do I find them? 2 Tim 3: 16-17...All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Here's what the Bible says about itself: it is god-breathed/inspired...Very important issue... Why? Because if the source of the Bible is not God, then the content of the Bible is not from God, and rules or standards we could get from it would be no better than what we already have...all we would have is a book of religious history with some ancient wisdom sprinkled in for good measure...It would be no better than any other book, and we definitely should not give it our devotion.

a) God pushed the pen?

b)religious men got together and decided that we all needed to have a holy book? (some people think both these things)

I believe that God impressed his message on people who in turn wrote the various books that make up the Bible... So, he didn't actually write it, but he controlled it's contentl. What about the other holy books? Like the Koran? People believe that God wrote them too...they do have similar things in them...theology, morality, philosophy, but, their essential stories are different...the Bible teaches that salvation is only thru Jesus - no other book teaches that...so, they all can't be equal in their truth claims. So, how do you know that the Bible is from God? Because it tells about Jesus...a real person that was also God...no other person made such claims about themselves and was able to back it up by being miraculous...even rising from the dead. I stake the Bible's truth on Jesus himself. It proves itself to be true in our lives...in simple english, the verse I quoted said, "It works"...It works the way is says it will in our lives if we do what it asks of us...

Here's where most people get into trouble with the Bible...proof texting, taking things out of context... "I prayed and believed and God didn't do what I asked, so I don't believe the Bible"...same as the old joke - Judas went out and hung himself; go thou and do likewise....Bible doesn't work that way...you have to find the intent of the scripture and apply that - that's what works

Only a book from God could tell us of the God/man Jesus and prove itself to be true..
Okay, it's from God, but it's out of date...how relevant can it be to our lives? Situations change, but people don't...we have the same questions, problems, hangups, complexes, and issues that people thousands of years ago had...just look at Jesus' disciples: blue collar, white collar, young, old, shy, outspoken, honest, deceptive, devout, and irreligious...people like me and you in every way...Jesus responded to all these situations and his answers are just as good today as they were then

Problem for 99% of us: not knowing everything the Bible says, but doing everything you know the Bible says...
 
Revelation in homegroup, a strange book, full of symbolism...people get really crazy about what they think it teaches about the end - they want to know the details, so they get tangled up in trying to nail down exactly when, where and how everything will happen by "interpreting" the symbols in Rev...we won't know til it happens...what about the rest of the Bible? Love your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, deny yourself - well known parts, but not well lived. Means: when the decision is between doing what the Bible says and what you or I want, the issue is clear - do what the Bible says. Divine inspiration says that the Bible contains the rules and standards for life because God makes the rules...no double standards, just one...his.

The Bible is from God and what it says is relevant to today, so what is next?