God's Word is Life

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." (John 8:12, ESV)

And Jesus said unto them, “I am the Bread of Life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35, KJ21)

“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” ( John 4:14, KJ21)

God gives us many things but one of the greatest things He gives to us, is His revealing Himself to us, in the Scriptures. We should honor Him and His ways which shows respect that He is God. The Bible calls this the “fear of the Lord.” We understand following His commandments will bring joy and true direction in our lives and we should want to listen to Him. Finally we should trust in our Lord God in all He does.

Our greatest desire, purpose and meaning as followers of Christ, is found in desiring the living Word of God become our very life, by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Thus God’s Word cannot be considered or thought of as just sayings, words, themes and guidelines that we learn or even memorize. The Word of God must be our very light by which we see with for the moment and the future. The Word of God must be the breath to sustain our living in and through every situation and encounter day by day, month by month and year by year. The Word of God must be the bread by which we are nourished and strengthen to for the challenges and stresses that we face. The Word of God must be the water that clenches the thirsting in our body and spirit yet remaining inexhaustible and life giving even as we drink it in over and over again. There is life in the Word of God but must see it as essential for our lives and we must let it become life to all of us.

“The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous” (Psalm 19:8-9 NIV).

 

Suggested Reading - Psalm 19

The giving of nothing and the delivery of everything …

The rich and privileged men stood in front of the crowds consumed of religious pretense, language and bluster as they came fully clothed in roles and robes of significance. They looked to the side without turning their heads or averting their eyes yet making sure people saw their slow hand movements as they purposely let their bulky offering fall into the offering box.

The old nondescript woman in tattered clothes quickly slipped the tiniest of coins in the offering box as well … blushing while glancing around,  trying to avoid the stares of aversion and disdain.

The people admired and noticed the bulky shimmering robes and the overflowing offering of the man as he proudly basked in their admiration but disregarded both the gift and the woman who quickly exited the temple. 

Yet, the Savior saw the truth midst the pretense.  The Savior saw the giving of nothing and the gloating pride of the rich men and the delivery of everything by the poor woman.   Thus the men, who gave nothing, received nothing but the false admiration of the moment devoid of the presence and blessing of God and the poor woman who truly released her heart found the richness of the abiding of God in her life.

Some were fooled in the days of the Savior and some are fooled today. Simply taken in and fooled by those who make a spectacle of their faith.  Don’t be fooled by those that make a show of their position, their wealth, their religious words and the trappings of their faith while they give nothing to their God.

Instead see the truth and substance or real faith in those that release everything as they deliver their hearts to their Savior. The faith of the humble will always give a richness of life to the humble through the blessing of God because the humble look to Him for everything they need.   It is the opposite way with the pretending of the proud ... as a certain emptiness will always remain in their faith because they desire what is essentially devoid of truth and substance, as the God they claim to know is not needed or really acknowledged and thus little comes their way from God.

And He said, “In truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all.  For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God, but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” (Luke 21:3-4, KJ21)

Meeting the Savior on our rebellious roads …

“For by grace are ye saved through faith …” (Ephesians 2:8, KJ21).

For centuries … parents, poets, politicians, philosophers, teachers, preachers, psychologists and writers have walked down the descriptive and analytical pathways of the metaphor of life being a road.  These varied helpers have tried to help others navigate their own roads by offering insights and advice on the difficulties of roads being both considered and travelled by those under their responsibility or care and direction.  Warnings have issued and warnings have been ignored.  Advice has been offered and advice has been cast aside like un-needed excessive baggage into the adjoining ditch on these many and varied  roads called life.  

There seems to be in the heart of all human beings, a sense of stubborn ignorant, selfish and rebellious determination to walk down roads of our own choosing.  We walk by the warning signs of experience, we shrug off the concern of those who would help us and we fail to consider the timeless advice from our God just because we want to go our own way on the roads that we want to walk down.

Roads of lust, coveting, greed and desire. Roads of pride and unconcern. Roads of power and self-absorption.  Ancient ill-advised treacherous roads that seem new and fresh only because we are foolish and unwise to believe we are better equipped than the myriads of those tripped up on these dangerous pathways.  How utterly vain and ridiculous we as human beings can be!  How desperately we need a Savior with an endless supply of grace!  

What a blessed reality to find a Savior with such an amazing grace on the rebellious roads each of us have travel throughout the days of our lives. Patient grace that knows every detail of our foolish journeys on roads that end at the cliff sides of danger and destruction to catch us as we fall.  Immense and powerful grace, that intervenes to stop us from harming ourselves and others through the mysterious and miraculous presence of a Savior who uses people, places and things to help us.   

Welcome and inviting grace that redeems our choice of roads, again and again.  It was grace that redeemed an adulterous David and proud Saul on their poorly chosen roads and it will be grace that will redeem us on our roads of life as well.  Thanks be to God for the Savior that meets all of us on our ill-advised and badly chosen rebellious roads in life!

Suggested Reading … Psalm 51, Acts 9:1-9

Seeing the Savior who travels beyond all sin to bring salvation.

You will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord. Even though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You comfort me. See, God saves me. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and song. And He has become the One Who saves me.” As water from a well brings joy to the thirsty, so people have joy when He saves them (Isaiah 12:1-3, NLT).

We may at times give a hurried backwards glance at our failures, hesitating and restless in the uncomfortable realizations of feeling regret for our failures and sins.  We may go slightly forward with our lives, but every now and then, the weight and residue of sin’s consequences may buffet us like a strong wind as we remember or face what remains.

We do not know which direction to go … whether to face into the wind or run from the imposing indictment of ourselves. We have seen the brutal reality of our sin and from the nastiest of nightmarish judgments that we sense we deserve, we can only long for a savior.

We long for a ray of expectation, for a glimmer of light to squeeze through the foreboding heaviness and give us a reason for a solution.  We sense the disappointment of our Heavenly Father and yet He is our only hope.  

We long to look up but our gaze is fixed on our failure.  Then it happens, then a greater reality demands our attention. The only One that can change our helpless predicament  has traveled the distance between hope and despair, between regret and promise and between foreboding and assurance to bring us salvation.

Our Savior has come! As we see Him, we faint in awareness … His love is greater than we can comprehend.  He is here.  He has come again. He is now with us, freely giving grace to erase all fear and His presence to empower us anew by securing the ground and the sustenance to journey forward anew into the days ahead.  What joy we have as we drink deeply from His unending well of overflowing salvation.  What joy to be welcomed again and again into the loving arms of the gracious beyond description Heavenly Father who travels beyond all sin to bring salvation in the gift of His Son!

Suggested Reading … Isaiah 12

Letting the Author finish His work …

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV).

It is a simple fact that our Christian faith begins with Christ as the Author of our faith by and through his death and resurrection. There is no other basis for believing in Christ as our Savior … if He did not die for our sins and rise from the dead to give us power, abundant and victorious life, now and for eternity. Yet, He came and desires to be the perfecter and finisher of our faith as well. Thus our life of faith begins with Christ and continues as engages, teaches and perfects every detail as He completes the book that becomes our life on earth that we will then carry with us as we come perfected by His grace into His presence and rest for eternity.  Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith having perfectly completed each page and each chapter of the book that be written as our life. 

It is so sad that many people who might profess Christ as the Author of their salvation,  will at the same time fail to allow Him to have access or control … much less  even touch the pen to write and perfect their emotions, their temperament, their self-centeredness and selfishness much less the will to sin against His ways. Thus Jesus Christ as the Author of all things cannot bring the Holy Spirit to many of the descriptive pages of those that profess Him in their lives. Without access to the pen of our lives, Christ cannot release His love and our lives do not reflect much of the “Fruit of the Spirit” or the guiding and redeeming touch of His creative, restoring or wonderful workmanship.

Our Savior never envisioned or purposed that His followers would simply believe in the salvation He offers as the Author of their faith, not also let Him be the one that would complete, perfect and finish all matters and events in their life of faith. Faith as a believer and follower of Christ is not a onetime emotional or mental decision, acknowledgment or event.  Our faith in Christ must be in all that He was and is and will forever be. The fact that Christ is not dead means He is alive to be with us, help us and most of all to perfect what we cannot do as we let God’s complete His workmanship in us (Ephesians 2:10).

We will not have dynamic and powerful faith, unless we trust Christ in all things and at all times, as we simply obey Him in all things and at all times by listening to His Spirit as we let God have His way with us through Christ as He remakes us into His masterpiece. We must release the pen of our lives into the hand of Christ, so that He may be,  the Author of our faith as well as the Perfecter and Finisher of all things and all times until we come into His presence for eternity.  Only when we let Christ as the author, finish and perfect our moments, our pages and the chapters of the book that will become our life …  will we find the days of our lives filled with the hope, love and joy that only Christ can bring.