Atlas For The Soul

I love to travel. I love to hit the open road and see new sights. On many of the vacations I’ve taken, the best and most enjoyable part was the journey itself. Just to be out there on the open road and see all the beautiful country God has made is so exciting and thrilling. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to be able to see a good bit of this great country we live in. I’ve been to over half of our fifty states and out of the country four times. I’ve seen so many beautiful sights and feel very blessed. I think my favorite drive was on the trip we took out west. We drove out to California to the Pacific Ocean and man the things we saw…the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Hoover Dam, White Sands, and one of my favorites, Carlsbad Caverns. I loved seeing the mountains and couldn’t get enough of them. They were spectacular!

One of my favorite aspects of traveling; one thing I get really excited about, is the planning. Whenever we decide on a destination for a trip, I don’t waste any time. I have so much fun pulling out the maps and planning out the route we’ll take. I love it!

Life is nothing more than a journey. We are pilgrims traveling through this world on our way to an eternal home. We have a choice to make about where we want to go and the same goes as it is when we plan a trip here on earth – We need directions. God gives us the atlas we need as we travel through life. The Holy Bible is our atlas for living. In order to have joy and peace during our journey through life as God intends, we must commit to reading and studying His word.

Let’s look a little more deeply to exactly what it means to read and study God’s Word.

Studying God’s word involves two aspects: We study to be informed of the truth and to be informed in the truth. There is a vast difference between “knowledge” and “wisdom.” Knowledge is the possession of facts, but wisdom comes when we apply knowledge we attain to strengthen and enrich our lives. Being informed of the truth involves acquiring knowledge. Being informed in the truth involves attaining wisdom. The goal of a reading the bible and engaging in study is more than just attaining mere knowledge, but it’s using what we learn to change our lives. It’s not enough to just read God’s word, but we must study it and apply it to

our lives in order to change and grow. DL Moody said: “The scriptures were not given for our information but our transformation.” The apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3:16, “Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise.” It sounds like Paul knew a little bit about the benefits of reading and studying God’s word in order to grow in spiritual wisdom.

When Jesus taught the people to pray the words, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He was speaking of two concerns. The first one is our need for physical nourishment. The second one, which is more important, has to do with spiritual hunger. We feed the spiritual man with the Bible, God’s Holy Word. Feeding your mind the proper diet of scripture will transform you into what God wants you to be. You’ve probably heard the saying referring to healthy eating that goes, “You are what you eat.” Well think of this as well as you think about your spiritual health, “You are what you read.” The Bible is an All-You-Can-Eat Spiritual Buffet. If one neglects to eat, the physical man would die. By the same idea, if you don't feed your spiritual man, your soul will die. Don’t let your soul die of spiritual malnutrition.

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God reveals Himself to us when we read and study His word. The Bible is a book of divine instruction. It gives us the diagnoses for our problems and also provides the cure. The bible is the ultimate book of answers. President Ronald Reagan said, “Within the covers of the one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today – if only we would read and believe.”

The number one theme of the Bible is the Gospel of our Jesus Christ…The amazing account of His work of redemption for all mankind. It’s the greatest story ever told. In all His truth and beauty, Christ is revealed in the Gospels and the full significance of His life, death, and resurrection are explained in the epistles. Through studying the scripture, we’re able to discover the will of God for our lives and to learn and grow to become more Christ-like. God’s word transforms us into becoming more like Christ. To put it very simply, We study Christ to become more like Christ.