"Word of God, speak!"

"Word of God, speak!"

The song “Word of God, speak!” by MercyMe is not one of the chart toppers for this great Christian band. But the song has always reminded me of the power of the Scriptures to change my life. And it reminds me that we are not sub-standard Christians because we cannot see Jesus physically. We are not living on meager rations of food for our soul because we have to depend on the written record of His life, death and resurrection, rather than having seen it up close and personal. What a revelation it was in our discussion of loving the God we cannot see to discover that in fact we are privileged, and blessed with a greater blessing, precisely because we believe having not seen.(John 20:26ff) Our vantage point is in many ways far greater than those who heard and watched Jesus during his earthly ministry. Where they might attend one or two of his teachings along the road, we have multiple accounts to listen to. Where they might have actually seen one miracle, we have one account after another at our disposal to marvel at. John Piper comments, “The gospels are better than being there. You are taken into the inner circle of the apostolic band where you never could have gone. You go with him through Gethsemane, the trial, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the meetings after the resurrection. You hear whole sermons and long discourses—not in isolated snatches on hillsides but in rich God-inspired contexts that take you deeper than you ever could have gone as a perplexed peasant in Galilee. You see the whole range of his character and power which nobody on earth saw as fully as you can now see in the gospels: you see his freedom from anxiety with no place to lay his head, his courage in the face of opposition, his unanswerable wisdom, his honoring women, his tenderness with children, his compassion toward lepers, his meekness in suffering, his patience with Peter, his tears over Jerusalem, his blessing those who cursed him, his heart for the nations, his love for the glory of God, his simplicity and devotion, his power to still storms and heal the sick and multiply bread and cast out demons.”

This is no second rate faith we posses. It follows that, while “studying” God’s Word is a good thing, I often forget to just “read” it in order to become better acquainted with the Jesus who loves me. If I am to grow to love Him, really love Him with all my being, then I need to know Him as I would anyone else who would capture my affections. We introduced the ancient pattern of Lectio Divinia in class last week. This way of “sacred reading” is a great antibiotic to the virus of our busyness and allows God to speak into our lives in very personal ways. Here is a brief description. “During Lectio Divina, the practitioner listens to the text of the Bible with the “ear of the heart,” as if he or she is in conversation with God, and God is suggesting the topics for discussion. The method of Lectio Divina includes moments of reading (lectio), reflecting on (meditatio), responding to (oratio) and resting in (contemplatio) the Word of God with the aim of nourishing and deepening one’s relationship with the Divine.” (The Prayer Foundation)

You can see more at http://www.upperroom.org/daily/?page_id=9. It is a great way to begin to live out what Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives”.-(from The Message)

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