The church's marching orders, it's mission in this world, and its divinely ordained purpose, is to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20). It is in the world to make disciples of Jesus Christ, as Christ Himself commissioned it to do. It fulfills its divine mandate by evangelizing the sinner and edifying the saint. The key to its success is the Scripture. To win converts to Christ, the Bible must be preached to sinners. To make disciples of Christ, the Bible must be taught to the saints.
Only by being Bible-centered can the church effectively exalt Christ so that He might draw all men unto Himself (John 12:32). If anything else becomes the center of the church’s focus, the church becomes ineffectual in the performance of its purpose. It becomes unequipped and unequal to its task.
Bible-centered churches are becoming somewhat of an anomaly in these Bible-spurning days. The Bible itself is becoming increasingly unpopular, thanks to ever-growing intolerance toward its sound doctrines by an end-time world that is at extreme enmity with Scripture's inerrant truths. Of course, all of this was predicted by the Apostle Paul, who warned us that in the perilous times of the last days biblical truth would become intolerant to the masses, who would insist upon their ears being tickled rather than they themselves being told the truth (2 Timothy 3;1; 4:3-4). Turning away from the truth, which will neither be received, believed, nor loved, the end-time world be will swept away in strong delusion, so that it will believe lies and be damned for seeking to satisfy itself in its sin against God (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). As a result of all of this, many contemporary "churches" are removing the Bible is from their pulpit and relegated to their back pews. Opting for bigger crowds and bulging coffers over faithfulness to Christ’s Great Commission, the contemporary church is continuously sacrificing its spiritual sway for the sake of its financial survival. Unfortunately, by doing so, as Jesus clearly taught in Mark 8:35, the contemporary church forfeits both its influence and its future in this world. It dooms itself to be discarded by man as inconsequential (Matthew 5:13) and disowned by the Master as inconsistent (Matthew 7:21-23).
In recognition of the Bible’s crucial importance to the mission of the church, we've written a daily devotion on the Bible for everyday of the year. These devotions are designed not just to deal with the teachings of the Bible, but to teach you about the Bible itself. For instance, how did we get the Bible? When, where, and by whom was it written? What proof do we have of its incredible claim to be the divinely inspired, inerrant, and infallible written revelation of God to man? What unprecedented influence has the Bible had upon our world? How and when was the canon of Scripture put together. How was the Bible copied, translated, and preserved through the centuries? All of this, and much more will be covered in these yearlong daily devotions.
It is our sincere hope and prayer that these devotions will prove informative, as well as inspirational, inspiring within you, the reader, a lifelong appreciation for the Bible, the most incredible book that has ever been written.