do we decide if the Bible is true?

St Augustine tells us about how we approach the Bible today in A Year with the Church Fathers. 

And it reminds me of the thermometer at work the other day. The little tube with mercury in it had come off of the little flat piece of plastic with the temperature markings on it. I had to glue it back on to the little piece of plastic. But where? How would I know what the temperature actually WAS so I could put the tube back on in the right place? Well, I realized that if I put some ice in water and let it sit for a little while, it would settle at 32 degrees. So then I could put the thermometer in the water and glue it so that it showed 32 degrees. That's how you calibrate a thermometer, because you have a set, fixed temperature to which to set your device.

That's what we do with the Bible, if we approach it correctly. If we come to the Bible and think that we are going to decide if it is true or not, then our tube is getting glued to the wrong part of the plastic. But if we realize that the Bible stands as truth, and approach it with humility, calibrating our lives to IT rather than trying to make IT fit our lives, then we glue our tube to the right part of the plastic.

If you have trouble approaching the Bible this way, ask for God to give you the grace to come to it more humbly. He gives us humility when we ask for it.

God, thanks for helping us get calibrated.