Going back to my present topic, about honouring God by taking time to be properly prepared, I am again struck by the way God took time in preparing his people for his message and his Son Jesus. Looking back, we can see that he did not rush for people to decide which writings were (1) utterly reliable, (2) inspired and, (3) between them, told us all we need to know .

The way our Christian forefathers decided which epistles (letters) and gospels (Good News about Jesus) should be chosen to go into the Bible is really interesting and part of the Holy Spirit's inspiration of those who wrote the books of the Bible under His guidance.

I expect you realise that the very first Christians could not refer to the N.T. (New Testament) purely because it had not yet been written. So if, say , someone asked, "Is it true that Jesus gave sight to a blind man ?" they could find someone who could say, ""Oh yes... I was there at the time and saw it myself." (St.Paul says that there were some 500 people who saw and heard what Jesus said and did and were also witnesses to his resurrection.)

Remember, there was no printing and everything had to be written by hand.

Only a few years after Jesus had gone to be totally at one with God, What we call "gone to heaven"), and had sent the Holy Spirit to guide his followers, St.Paul wrote letters (epistles) to groups of Christians in various parts of what was then the Roman Empire.

These letters, (often quite long) explained how Christians should think, speak and behave and reminded them how marvellous it is to have the new life of Christ in you.

Modern scholars think that Peter dictated his memories to Mark who also wrote what we call "The Gospel (Good News) according to Mark". Mark was one of the eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus.

The other Gospel writers also had very close ties to Jesus. St.Matthew, for example, was one of the 12 disciples. He was from a Jewish background and so he frequently points out events in Jesus' life which fulfilled prophecies in what we know as the Old Testament, the Jewish sacred writings.

Luke was not one of the disciples, but he was St Paul's personal doctor and he knew the disciples personally. If you read the opening paragraphs of Luke's Gospel and his other book, the Acts of the Apostles, you will see that he checked up on all the written or spoken evidence he could find before writing his gospel, to ensure its accuracy. He had a doctor's mind and wanted to make sure everything was correct.

St John was the disciple closest to Jesus and he wrote a lot of the things that happened when they were working together, to help people believe what he himself knew - that Jesus was truly and amazingly the son of God himself.

By the time all the eye-witnesses had died the WRITTEN records were already in existence and had become essential. It is these very early written records that still inspire us today as true testimony.

However, right from the word go there were problems. Jesus taught his disciples the truth, and then gave them his own Holy Spirit so that they could teach others. But other people soon appeared who started teaching things that were contrary to what the disciples, or apostles as they are known, were teaching. You can see in some of the Epistles how angry and upset the apostles became when they found people were teaching things that weakened people's faith, and that were not true.

So it became increasingly important for the church, as it spread, to be sure of the truth about Jesus. It was seen by the church leaders that there needed to be some agreement about which books were authentic, and which were not. Very early on, in the middle of the second century, there was already a list circulating amongst the churches of books that were considered authentic.

We also have a written record of a special meeting of christian leaders,known as the Council of Carthage on 28 August 397 AD. They confirmed the books we now have as the true and inspired word of God in the New Testament (although they continued to discuss what exactly should be included in the Old Testament).

And what's a church council?

Not everybody understands what a COUNCIL means in church matters, so let me explain it in this way:-

During the last war, we had a coalition government -- which meant that all the main political parties were represented on the Cabinet. So the cabinet consisted of all the leading people of the United Kingdom. They had two main jobs to do, (i) Maintain the life of the nation and (ii) Fight the enemy.

(i) they did by getting everyone with a garden to grow their own vegetables, ("Dig for Victory") and share food fairly, (rationing).
(ii) by building more 'planes and warships etc.

A Council of the christian Church consists of elected leaders, (bishops) who form a "cabinet" and have two main purposes; to encourage and help the lives of christians, to affirm and uphold God's word and his truth, and to fight all forms of sin and evil. These days the Church of England is governed by a General Synod, a mixture of bishops, clergy and lay people who do exactly what the church councils have always done - pray, discuss and make decisions for the good of the church's life.

I hope I have said enough for you to realise just how valuable the Bible is. In it God reveals himself and his truth to us, in it we meet with Jesus, and when we read it we must open ourselves to God's Holy Spirit, who will explain things to us, help us to understand and build our faith. It nourishes us for our everyday living, and gives us guidance for hard decisions.

So let me encourage you to order some monthly Bible-reading notes, to help you understand what you read. You can find your local Christian book shop on the web or in the directory, or you can order online - try http://www.scriptureunion.org.uk.

Choose a place and time in the day when you can be quiet, and keep in mind "This is God's message to me which is inspired by the Holy Spirit." Then read the passage set for the day and study the notes about it. May it enrich you as it has always enriched me!

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