TRANSCRIPT:

How do you ease into the Bible? Basically, the same way you ease into surfing a 40-foot wave. I think I need to explain that. 

 I’m Jean Wilund, but it’s all about Him! Welcome to a fun place to get serious about Bible study. 

The Bible can feel a bit like a 40-foot wave when we first approach it. How do we even start? 

I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten the chance to watch a major surfing tournament in person. 

I happened to be on the North Shore of Hawaii during one of the Pipe Masters surfing tournaments. 

Sitting there on the sand, you can feel the rumble of the waves in every cell of your body. 

You can feel the enormous power that each wave carries. It’s a bit terrifying at the same time it’s absolutely fascinating. 

But those waves weren’t even Big Wave surfing like those that happen every once in a while just up the road at Waimea Bay on the North Shore, which is the home of the Edie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. 

This tournament only takes place when the waves are at least 20 feet high which means that the face of the wave is about 30 to 40 feet high. I don’t know how they do math. (Math is hard.) That’s basically the height of a 3 to 4 story building. Understand that’s the minimum the waves must be for them to even hold the tournament. Now that’s Big Wave surfing. 

How does anyone become confident enough to surf a 30-to-40-foot Wave? 

The same way we become confident in surfing the heights and depths of the Bible. We ease into it. 

We don’t have to know everything about the Bible to get started, but just like in surfing, there are some basics we simply must know to understand what we’re reading. 

The first most important basic we must know if we really want to understand the Bible is: we must know the Lord. We must be His child. We have to truly have trusted in Christ.

Why? Why is that imperative? Because the Bible is a spiritual book, so it can only be understood truly and correctly by the Spirit.

Scripture teaches us in 2 Corinthians 2 starting in verse eleven: For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spiritwithin him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. [Christians] But the person without the Spirit [this is verse 14] does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything…” 

And the verse goes on from there, but for our purposes I wanted to highlight that God gives all His children His Spirit at the moment of salvation, so we’ve got His Spirit to be able to understand it. That doesn’t mean we automatically get a download of understanding of the Bible. That would be amazing. But we have the Spirit to teach us. 

Non-Believers, they can understand the written words of the Bible, but they won’t lead them to transformation. They won’t be changed by the Bible. It won’t go down into their hearts and minds and transform them unless, as they’re reading, the Lord gives them spiritual life and opens their eyes to see and understand the gospel.

The gospel is simple enough for a child to understand, but again, you have the faith to believe it before you’ll become a child of God. And faith is a gift of God. This is one of the basics that we learn as we ease into the Bible. 

Throughout this season, we’re going to look at many more basics that will empower us to surf the heights and depths of the Bible like we would a big wave. 

Thanks for joining me today. If you like what you heard, share it with others. Hit the subscribe button and write a review on your favorite podcast app. I’m Jean Wilund. But It’s All About Him!