If firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord is made for your faith in His excellent word.

If you want to be a serious student of God's Word, there are three absolutely essential reference books that you need.

Welcome to Through the Bible, where Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about those books as we dive into the second part of this foundational study, which he called Guidelines for Understanding Scripture.

This is such vital information for our upcoming studies, so I'm glad that you're with us.

But first, we're celebrating the beginning of our 12th journey through Scripture here on the Bible

bus, and it's a great time to take a quick tour and celebrate how our study of God's Word is

changing people's lives, including our own. And to start us off, here's Dr. McGee reading one of his favorite letters.

This party writes, I will never forget the day one Saturday about 20 years ago at our little

apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where my bride and I started out housekeeping when I stumbled

across your broadcast for the first time.

I was an active Christian at the time, but extremely narrow-minded about many things,

especially doctrine and who I should fellowship with.

Something about Dr. McGee's voice and message grabbed my attention, and I became a regular

listener to your program. That was the beginning of a conversion process that has been going on for

years in which I've been learning about how much wider the kingdom of God is than I had thought. Dr. McGee's kind tolerance and

respect for Christians of different factions, along with his absolute faithfulness to the word as

he sees it, all has had a great effect on my own thinking and growth. Since that time, I have entered the ministry myself, and at every church

I've pastored, we have read through the Bible together. I owe this to my acquaintance with your program.

That's a great letter. I know Dr. McGee would say it's the Holy Spirit at work through God's word that changed his heart, not the teacher. Isn't that right, Greg?

It's absolutely correct. Theologically, practically, we all live this. And in no way are we disrespecting Dr. McGee when we say what he taught, which is that

the Holy Spirit is the teacher and the driver of the Bible bus, not Dr. McKee. And I think we

would actually be dishonoring his memory to elevate him more than he wanted to be elevated.

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