sharing from the 2010 Winter School of Truth – the Bible testifies concerning the Lord Jesus

The Winter School of the Truth is a one-week-long period of time when the young people come together to enter into the truth, blend together, and fellowship around the Word of God.

In Europe until now the winter school has been in London, UK. This past year – year 2010 – we went through “The Bible”: below is sister Grace’s top enjoyment from this wonderful time. [Read this portion also in Spanish / Puede leer esta porción también en español, Testimonio de la Escuela de Invierno de la Verdad. Acerca de “La Biblia testifica del Señor Jesús“]

2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The subject of the Winter School of Truth this year was the Bible. God expresses Himself through His Word. We need to see that the Bible is unlike any other book; it has the ability to change people inwardly.

If we want to know God, we have to know the Bible. How can we please God if we do not know what He wants? The Bible is the means of God the Spirit to reach us. Whatever God does towards us and anything He wants us to do is written in His Word.

This week, we saw that God has given us two spiritual inheritances: the Spirit, which cannot be seen, and the Bible, which can be seen. We have to realize that we need to use both the Bible and the Spirit. We need to be trained in our mind in order to understand the Word, and we need to be exercised in our spirit to experience the Word and to touch the Lord.

What I really enjoyed was the example given to support this. The Bible can be referred to as being the tracks of a train, and the Spirit as the fuel for the train to run. The train cannot run if one or the other is missing. The tracks are outward; this is the Word of God to lead and guide us in the right direction. The fuel is inward; this is the Spirit to energise us so that we can go. When we touch the Spirit, we get the life of the Spirit.

What is the Subject of the Bible? We saw in the Winter School that the subject of the Bible is contained in four statements: God planned and created, Satan rebelled and damaged, man fell and was lost, and Christ redeemed and built. However, the central thought of the Bible is Christ and the church. Everything was created according to God’s purpose; the church is God’s heart’s desire and should be our vision today.

Also, the Bible has many functions. First, the Bible is an expression and explanation of the Lord Jesus. The Bible also makes us wise unto salvation. The Word causes us to be regenerated. The Scriptures are our milk as nourishment, and also our spiritual bread of life. Finally, the Bible is for our perfecting. We can know the Word and be constituted with the Lord. Then we can speak life into others. The more we are filled with the Word of God, the more we life to speak and the more we have to speak; the more we speak, the more we are filled in spirit.

The Bible reveals God to us. Our God is one: Isaiah 45:5a says, “I am Jehovah and there is no one else; / Besides Me there is no God.”

God is mighty and faithful, self-existing and ever-existing, triune; He is three yet one, and He is co-existing and eternal. Why is God Triune? The Triune God is triune to dispense Himself into us, because we were created to contain God.

We need to have the burden to preach the gospel to our friends in this age, the church age. This is the age in which anyone can receive eternal life by just believing into Him. However in the next age, the Kingdom Age, we can only enter into the eternal life, it can no longer be received. In the eternal age, with the New Jerusalem, we will manifest the Triune God for eternity. Everyone is seeking something today.

We live in an age that rejects God; Christianity today is filled with things that are not of Christ. God’s intention is that His will be done, and that His kingdom is made manifest on the earth. He cannot do so without the Body, the church. The church is the goal God wants to obtain in His eternal economy; each one of us who is saved participates in this goal that God may obtain His heart’s desire according to His good pleasure.