If someone has been a Christian for a while, or even just been to Sunday School, it is easy for them to start to assume that they know what God says in the Bible. Isn’t it all about being a nice person so God will love you?
1 Samuel 3
shows us that the Bible is so much more than this. God speaks to us to tell us what he is like. In Samuel’s day the word came through a prophet, but now we have this word written down for us. It is in this word that we know what God is like, what he wants from us, and how we can be God’s friends. But it’s not always nice happy news. Samuel’s first message from God was one that told of coming terrible judgement on people he would have considered to be his family. There are many passages in the Bible that warn us of the dangers of disobeying and rejecting God. But in the good and bad news, we know that being God’s word it is true and reliable news.
People are actually changed through God’s word to us. Do you believe that? Christians say that they believe this, but in reality so often we doubt the power of God’s word. We think we need an impressive speaker for it to really work, or we need to surround it with great music or other things to change people. God changes people through the news in the Bible – see Romans 1:16-17. If you think you know what the Bible says already, maybe you should pick it up again. You might be surprised by what you find.
(Based on ANPC Sunday teaching, June 13 2010 
).