Sunday morning August 14th I opened my message by explaining what I call the “Orienting Function of the Bible.”
People who take the Bible seriously come to know the mind of God and the ways of God and they understand the world around them even when things are difficult and disturbing. People who study the Bible and believe the Bible and meditate on the Bible tend to see a deeper significance in the common things around them and tend to have a deeper purpose and a higher joy than those who don’t… The Bible has an orienting function in our lives and families. it helps us keep our balance and know our place. It helps us deal with our past and prepare for our future. It tends to move us from despair to hope, from aimlessness to purpose, from emptiness to fulfillment. It helps us understand evil and it assures us of its limits. The passage we will study today has had that orienting effect on the faithful for many centuries around the world.