Living by the BOOK

What is your most valuable experience in the world?

Surely it must be a loving relationship with a person who understands you, lets you be yourself, and yet is there when you need him or her.

Do you think of God as being one with whom you can have such a meaningful relationship?

In the Bible (the BOOK) God reveals Himself, and elaborates on the kind of relationship He wants to have with you and I.

Careful reading of the Bible reveals that God is not this distant being out there, but that he wants to have a personal relationship with every person on earth. In fact, God took the initiative to make this possible. Jesus, God’s son, came into our world just over two thousand years ago, and through his willing sacrificial death on the cross secured God’s acceptance of broken, selfish human beings like you and I. By accepting this magnanimous act, we become children of God, and enter into this loving relationship with the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth.

The authors of “Living by the BOOK”, Wolfgang Bernhardt, Sarie Snow and Derek Griffin, describe what it is like to live in this amazing God-me relationship. The relationship between God and individual people is not one of a benevolent granddad satisfying our every wish. It is a serious relationship where mutual respect prevails. God does not tolerate injustice in any form. He does know how difficult it is for human beings to do good, but to the one who aims to please Him, He empowers the person to do so. Furthermore, He is a God of compassion who understand the anguish and heartache caused by human oppression and heartlessness. God is fully involved in our day-to-day experiences, and He comforts those who bring their suffering to Him.

The authors describe the light that the Christian textbook, the Bible, throws on the difficult questions of life. The topics range from the problem of evil, the beauty of relationships, the benefits of mentoring others, challenges of leadership, the power of attitudes, the enigma of human suffering and the demands of managing one’s money. Once a person gives God His rightful place in his thinking and planning, God provides wisdom, through the pages of the Bible, that He inspired people to write.

In highlighting how the Bible can offer practical wisdom in navigating the hurdles of life, the authors quote numerous appropriate texts and give the references where they can be found. They take examples from everyday life and show how God interacts with us and becomes the significant other in our human experience. It deals with the reality of our relationship with God, addressing daily challenges.

That relationship with God is more permanent than a marriage between two people. It is founded on a love so deep that God was prepared to allow Jesus, his Son, to experience a cruel death on a Roman cross, in order to remove the barrier that naturally exists between a holy, just and incorruptible God and people who are often selfish and frequently hurt others. The only acceptable sacrifice that could satisfy God’s holiness was the offering of the sinless life of His son own Jesus as the lamb of God. By believing in the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice, the person is accepted by God who now welcomes him/her as His child. God accepts the person because of the great price that His own Son paid so that the person’s sins can be forgiven.

This acceptance brings peace and the assurance that the child-father relationship has been established. The immediacy of the relationship is ensured through the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God living within the believer. Through the in-dwelling Spirit, the believer has 24/7 access to God. He can talk to God about his concerns and fears.  Not only does God hear his prayers, He gives him strength to persevere when negotiating challenging situations.

The chapters are arranged into three sections. In the first section “The Corporate Structure” the authors use the analogy of a large corporation consisting of a Board and Shareholders to describe the position of the triune God (God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) as representing the Board and the Shareholders consisting of the whole of humanity as well as all other living creatures.

The second section gives an in-depth description of the forces that impact human beings, including domination, intimidation and manipulation by others, our own (often harmful) habits and cravings, external forces of evil, the pressures that societal norms exert, and the threat of sickness to one’s health and well-being.

In the third section the development of skills and attitudes that are beneficial for personal as well as societal improvement are covered. Examples of these are cultivating a vision that leads to pursuit of worthwhile goals, paying attention to one’s decision-making process, and working together with others in a team. The book has 293 pages, and the chapter headings are shown below.

Wolfgang Bernhardt is an engineer, Sarie Snow an entrepreneur and Derek Griffin an educator.