“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
Throughout the semester we, as students, have continually been introduced to new ideas in order to help us create our worldview. The first book we read through we In the World by John Timmerman and in this book we answered questions to see how we viewed situations and how would these situations fin into a biblical worldview. The second book was The Universe Next Door by James Sire. This book was a “basic worldview catalog” in which we learned about religions around the world and we were forced, not by the teachers, to look at these religions and see how they relate to Christianity, why we think different than the other religions and cults and how the Bible and God answer questions about life that none of the other religions can. Our last book was a biography and what better way to see someone’s worldview than to read about their life. This last project has been one I have wrestled with all semester.
The final project is to answer “so what” to Isaiah 40:8. This is not an easy answer by all means. To answer would be writer’s suicide because the discussion could take an eternity because no matter what answer I or any other student give one could continue to ask “so what?” I am going to exhaust the question “so what?” so that to ask would be meaningless and pointless.
To begin to answer “so what?” we must first ask why. Why do we care if the word of God stands forever? To begin with the Heidelberg Catechism’s first question should be addressed before we continue. The question was asked “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” and the answer is “That I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” We were bought with a price. The price was a perfect, eternal sacrifice. It had to be a sacrifice that was a man so that it could die, but also God so that it was eternal. It had to be a sacrifice that was without blemish, without sin, without His father. It also had to be from someone that could relate to us in every aspect of our lives. From our wants, desires, and dreams to our pain, grief and suffering. Jesus Christ was the only and greatest sacrifice for our sins which is why we are our own no longer. We care that the word of God stands forever? Because it is the words of the one that gave us not only our first life, but will one day give us life forever.
As I have thought about the question “so what?” a few endings come to mind. The first being “so what was the author talking about?” Isaiah is not talking about literal grass and flowers when he says that these are going to pass away. Rather, people are portrayed as the grass and their promises are the flowers. This verse is saying that people and their promises are going to pass away. The promises are pretty on the outside, but they are going to pass. People all look the same, but they are going to end up dying. This verse is saying that God’s word, His decrees, His promises, will not pass away.
Another question that came to mind was “so what does it matter?” Throughout scripture God has made promises to Israel, about Israel, to the church, about the church, to the unsaved, about the unsaved, and against the unsaved. We see that God has kept His promises thus far, so we can have faith in His word when He gives us promises. Right when we think that there is no way that God would ever intervene to remember His promises to us God does and “saves the day.” Phillip Yancey, in the essay In Defense of Pain says “Let history finish. Let the orchestra scratch out its last mournful warm-up not of discord before it bursts into the symphony. As Paul said ‘In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us.’” Like Paul we, as Christians, need to stop looking at our present situations that we are in and know that everything we are going through is because God put us there and two this is only temporary and just one of a few notes of discord. God will keep every one of His promises He has made.
Another question that has come to mind is “so what now?” After all of the books we have read over the semester and after all of the studying we’ve done about having a biblical worldview this question is more than appropriate. What are we to do now that we see with a greater biblical worldview? Paul says in 1 Corinthians that whatever we do we should glorify God (10:31). This means that we should use the knowledge we have gained about a biblical worldview should be used to glorify God and God alone.
The final question is “so what is next?” Now that we have this knowledge what is next for us. In his essay “You’re still failing” Ottinger asks four final questions that stuck out to me tremendously and helped me answer the question “so what is next?” The first question was “Do you live in servanthood?” After this semesters work is over, after learning everything that is needed for all of the classes, after learning about having a biblical worldview, do you live in servanhood? If looking back on this semester and you can honestly answer yes that your life is characterized by servanthood than you are a greater person than I. If, like myself, you look back and see that your life is not characterized by servanthood do not loose hope. While you are still living decide to lead a life of servanthood like that of Christ. Christ was the greatest servant leader because of His humility. Create in yourself a spirit of humility and decide to be more like your step-brother Jesus and your heavenly Father God.
A second question Ottinger poses is “Do you live in love?” We have read and reread 1 Corinthians 13 multiple times and as we read we see everything that love really and truly is, but is that as far as we take love. Do we just read the words and not apply them to our lives? As hard as it is we must live a life of love. People must be able to see Christ in our lives and desire to know Him because of our love for our brothers and sister in Christ, for our friends, for the unfortunate, and even our enemies.
A third question he asks is “Do you dare dream?” This question seemed a little off for me because it seemed to have no biblical basis in mind. But in thinking about this question one could definitely see that it was more than just a basic question. If one dare dreams it shows they are living life to the fullest. John Piper would call this being a Christian Hedonist. A Hedonist is a person whose life is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self-gratification. A Christian Hedonist is God “ most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” If we dare dream as a Christian Hedonist we could dream what God could do through us if we really let go of our pride and our selfish desires and gave them over to Him.
A final question that Ottinger asked was “Do you live each day in the possibility of eternity?” I do not think this question need much interpretation, but I am going to ask a different way, are we furthering the kingdom of this world or the kingdom of Christ? If, you can answer this truthfully as a yes, than once again you are a better person than I, but if, like me, looking back on this past semester, month, week, even day you see that you aren’t, hope is not lost. Decide to further the kingdom of God rather than this temporal kingdom on earth.
In conclusion, what we believe about God, our theology, will bleed into how we live. If we believe something about God that will bleed into how we live and people will know that we view God one way or another by how we live. By having a better view on what the Bible say about God, cults, and other religions we can now see what the point is when Isaiah says, “The word of God stands forever.”
This is a response to a previous post. I am going to try to keep this post as short as I can as not to lose some of my readers. My first problem with this article is the title and the picture. A Bible should not be so treasured in our lives that we are not willing to give it up. “When you can pry it from my cold dead hands” means the person will be dead when you will get the Bible. I know he didn’t mean what it says he means, but anyone can have my ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT, NKJV, KJV, NET (insert translation here) Bible if they ask for it. Yes, the Bible is precious, but we should not put so much emphasis on a Bible that we forsake the reason the Bible exists and that is the gospel. I feel like most people that are this way are relying a lot on a translation that, in my opinion, is not the best translation. 
