May 2025 
THY WORD

Dear people of God,

Greetings in the Holy name of Jesus Christ!

The Lord is good and his love endures forever!!

This month, we will reflect on the Holy Bible, a book revered by many around the world. For approximately 2.4 billion people, the Bible is their sacred text. In terms of consistency and continuity, no other book compares. Remarkably, it was written by nearly 40 different authors over a span of 1,400 years. The Bible honestly and sincerely recounts the lives of great individuals. It has the power to transform lives and remains one of the most widely circulated books in history.

Every chapter, word, and letter of Scripture is inspired, as affirmed in Matthew 5:18, which emphasizes that all Scripture is divinely inspired. The Bible is theopneustic, meaning it is “God-breathed.” The Scriptures contain the life-giving truth that God has breathed into them because God is the ultimate author of the entire Bible. Therefore, the Bible is authentic and trustworthy in all its teachings about God, humanity, life, death, history, science, and everything else it addresses. The Holy Spirit spoke through and worked in the prophets (Numbers 24:2-4), and men spoke from God when they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

The New Testament authors consistently used phrases such as “it is written,” “it says,” “God says,” and “the Scriptures say” to affirm the authority of Scripture. The Bible is valuable for teaching, exposing sin, correcting errors, restoring obedience, and training in righteousness. It instructs people on how to live according to God’s will in both public and private life—encouraging honorable behavior, moral courage, and integrity. The Bible offers us eternal life (1 Peter 1:23), spiritual cleansing (Ephesians 5:26), spiritual strength (Psalm 119:28), the power to heal our bodies (Matthew 8:16), spiritual cleansing (Ephesians 6:17), and the building of faith (Romans 10:17).

Augustine of Hippo said, “Let us, therefore, yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive.”  Martin Luther replied, “Unless I am convinced by testimonies of Scripture or by evident reason-for I believe neither the Pope nor Councils alone, since it is established that they have often erred and contradicted themselves-I am the prisoner of the Scriptures cited by me, and my conscience has been taken captive by the Word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”  A man of God said, ‘in this one book, are the two most interesting personalities in the whole world—God and yourself.’ “Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them.” The more you read the Bible, the more you love it; the more you love it, the more you read it.

Charlotte Elliot (Poet, author of the Hymn “Just as I am”) says, “The Bible is my church. It is always open, and there is my High Priest ever waiting to receive me. There I have my confessional, my thanksgiving, my psalm of praise, a field of promises, and a congregation of whom the world is not worthy—prophets and apostles, and martyrs and confessors—in short, all I can want, there I find.”

God bless you.

With blessings

Rev. Dr. Andrew B Natarajan,

Senior Pastor.