The Blog

Thoughts and Musings from City of Refuge Church

Book of Love


The Bible is the most extraordinary book on record. It includes about forty authors from several countries of many vocations written over a period of approximately 1,500 years in three languages. It is split into two categories known as the Old and New Testaments. There are 66 manuscripts that we often call books. When they were originally recorded, there were no verses or chapter breaks. The Old Testament authors refer to their writings as the words of God over 3,800 times. The New Testament speaks of the Old Testament as “Scripture,” translated from the Greek word, “graphe,” meaning “writing,” while the word Bible comes from the Greek word for book.

It is okay to get technical about the literature, origin, and compilation of the Bible. The book is called Holy. It is worthy of investigation and careful critique. But we must not dwell on the mechanical issues revolving around the holy book. There is more to it than that. The true Author ultimately is the focal point of the words.

Behind the facts, the laws, and the historical events is a love story. Really, it is like a love letter. God is writing to people that don’t know Him, but He desires for them to know Him. He is basically revealing how much He cares. It is like a child saying I love you “this much” and spreads their arms as wide as possible to express the depth of their affection.

It is important to realize that historically there is no god of world religions on record to have intensely pursued an eternal relationship with humans based on His own sacrifice for them and only requires for them to love Him and other humans in return. Even most humans are not so others-centered on pursuing those not looking in their direction and willing to give up so much to invite friendship. Interestingly, most humans that are others-centered gather their motivation and ability to do so from the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Otherwise, where does that motivation come from? Why love others? In a dog eat dog, naturalistic, humanistic world, only looking out for number one makes sense.

At COR (City of Refuge), we are discussing Scripture this Sunday. So much of what we believe is authenticated by the Bible. So much of what is in the Bible is taught wrongly and misunderstood. God despises being misunderstood. That is exactly why He had Scripture recorded so that we would know Him as He really is. Come join our discussion and learn more about the letters of this love story.