“Truth is what you make it. There’s different aspects of truth. Depending on your perspective. I think that’s true.”
–– Phillip, 16-year-old surfer.

Driver’s Ed! Some of the most frightening events of life happen in a Driver’s Ed car when you have to trust your life to someone who has never driven before. You have no control, no way of slowing the car down or turning out of the way of that oncoming cement truck. All you can do is pray that the driver has read the Driver’s Ed Manual.

You step on to the court for the first time with the seniors. They not only make you look bad, they make you hurt.

Or you sit down for the first test with that new teacher that has a brutal reputation. Fifty minutes later, you learn that he/she deserves that reputation.

Aren’t our lives kind of like this? We are pushed out of the nest into life, and we take some blows. We want to do what is best, but it isn’t always clear what we should do. Wish life came with an instruction guide –– a playbook?

I’ve Heard of the Bible

(10 Minutes)

The Bible has been around for a long time. Today, we want to take some time and see if the Bible is worth looking at to be a Playbook for us.

You may have heard of the Bible, maybe read it. Maybe you have read it a lot. But what do you KNOW about it? Check out these facts:

• Contains 66 books.
• Written over 1500 years by over 40 authors.
• Authors were from all walks of life: kings, political leaders, fisherman, sheppards, a doctor, a rabbi.
• Written in three languages on three continents.
• Proven to be historically accurate through multiple sources.
• Written on many topics –– many of which were controversial.
• The most published, quoted book in the history of mankind.

Even though it was written by people from so many different walks of life, from different continents, over a span of 1500 years, it expresses a unified message about God that has kept theologians, scholars and the “average joe” scratching their heads for centuries. The only way a book like this could have been written is if there were an orchestrating “mind” bringing all the pieces together. It had to be God.

It explains:

• How everything began: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen 1:1 (NIV)
• How we can have the best life: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 (NIV)
• How we can find peace: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you...” John 14:27(NIV)
• How to be a great leader: “A leader who lacks understanding is very oppressive, but one who hates unjust gain prolongs his life.” Proverbs 28:16 (HCSB)
• How to experience life with God after death: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)

Discuss the following:

• Have you ever read the Bible?
• How is the Bible considered a historic book?
• How do you know the Bible is accurate?
• Has the Bible ever helped you out?

What Went Bang?

(15 Minutes)

One of the big questions in life is, “Where did we all come from?” If we’re just a cosmic combo of about $75 worth of chemicals, then the Playbook is a lie. However, if there is someone who created us, we can look there for His instructions.

There isn’t enough time to get into all the biology and history in this study (if you want to know more, check out Genesissolution.com), but one question needs to be asked:

If the process of evolution began with The Big Bang, what went bang?

Basically, we have a choice. We can choose to believe that there was always stuff, or that there was always a Creator. With all the other arguments aside, you have to consider this was there a God who got all of this started, or was there always “just stuff”?

In the Bible it says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen 1:1 (NIV)

It assumes that there always was God. It makes more sense that there was an intelligent Being before there was infinitely complex matter. The Bible has the Big Answer for the Big Question, “What went bang?”

Discuss the following:

• What went bang?
• What came first: God or stuff?

“We the undersigned, students of the Natural Sciences, desire to express our sincere regret that researchers into scientific truth are perverted by some in our own times into occasion for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. We conceive that it is impossible for the Word of GOD written in the book of nature, and GOD’s Word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one another ... physical science is not complete, but is only in a condition of progress.”
–Signed by 800 scientists of Great Britain, recorded in Bodelian Library, Oxford

Here’s What Everyone Else is Saying...

(10 Minutes)

In fact many notable figures in history have come to the same conclusion.

• Abraham Lincoln: “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book.”
• George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
• Napoleon: “The Bible is no mere book, but a Living Creature, with a power that conquers all that oppose it.”
• Sir Isaac Newton: “There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history.”
• Theodore Roosevelt: “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
• Ronald Reagan: “Indeed, it is an indisputable fact that all the complex and horrendous questions confronting us at home and worldwide have their answer in that single book [the Bible.]”

Discuss the following:

• If you wrote a quote about the Bible, what would it be? (Write your own quotes and read aloud.)

How Does This Help Me Fix My Eyes?

(10 Minutes)
 

Hebrews 12:2- “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith...”

The choice is up to you. Millions have relied on the Bible for inspiration, life focus and eternal salvation. When it comes to your choices about the Bible, you can:

1. Begin reading the Bible and consider that it could help you focus your life.
2. Begin reading the Bible and allow it to bring focus to your life.
3. Continue reading the Bible and allow more of it to give your life focus.

Discuss the following:

• What does the Bible mean to you?
• Of the three choices above, which are you going to make today?
• How could this new focus change your life?