We have been on an eight week excursion in the sacred writings

I thought it would be good today to return to where we began
– Paul encourages Timothy to continue in what he had learned and believed
• his spiritual education was rooted in the sacred writings
◦ “sacred,” because they come from God and reveal God
◦ “sacred,” because All Scripture is breathed out by God
• what I want to emphasize in this talk: the sacred writings are profitable
◦ for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness
◦ and by the sacred writings we are fully equipped for every good work
– one difficulty we have with scripture is that we do not know how to read the sacred writings
• reading other writings we question, we argue, we disagree with the author
◦ it’s okay to read Bible that way when we’re studying it
• but as sacred writings, we must suspend judgment
◦ we accept these writings exactly as they are, letting God speak to us
◦ but having said that, a mere reading of the sacred writings is not the endgame