There is no endeavor and no higher call, personal or corporate, than the invitation into the Word of God. The Word of God, the holy Scripture, is more than simply text on pages. The Word of God is what it proclaims itself to be: the very thoughts and breath of the living God. Yes, the words on the pages are ancient, yet they are alive! I love this truth from Hebrews 4:12 in the Amplified Bible: “For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
The word is alive! Hebrews 4:12 describes the Word of God as a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon. Piercing, judging, separating. This is the activity of a skilled heavenly physician, using his Spirit-empowered words to permeate deeper into us than anything else we have ever experienced. And he does this out of love, to see us become who he has created us to be. He guides this process carefully.
When we open the Word of God, we can do so with one of many attitudes. We can believe we are entering into a dry academic process of study (sounds like drudgery, as in the most boring high school or college class), or we can enter into the Word of God as though we have been given an invitation to a banquet with a king.
Mary showcases this so well in Luke 10:38–42. You probably know the story. As Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha, two sisters who were his disciples, Martha was running around trying to make preparations for him and his entourage of disciples. Mary, however, sat on the floor at Jesus’s feet listening to the words he spoke. When Martha complained to Jesus that Mary needed to help with the preparations, Jesus responded that Martha was worried about things that were quite insignificant, while Mary had chosen what was better, . . . and it wouldn’t be taken from her.
The gentle conviction that comes from this scene reminds me to enter into my time with Jesus, as Mary did, gazing upon the Word of God; this posture is like gazing into the eyes of Jesus Himself, taking in every word he has to say. I’ll have to admit that there were many times in my earlier years when I treated the Word of God and the study of the Word as something I
needed to check off on the list of what I was doing as a follower of Christ. This activity was no more than an item on a to-do list, without consideration of what his words possibly held for me.
I unintentionally adopted the attitude that, if I simply read the Word in the morning in a cursory fashion—my religious duty—I would be good to go for the day. The problem with that type of thinking is that it misses the point that Jesus was emphasizing to Martha: to be with Jesus is to set everything else aside and let him speak. Our time with the Word of God should be just that: an opportunity to ask the Spirit to speak to us as we open the pages of Scripture.
This is intended to be a delight, and it becomes so when we begin with the understanding that God, as a loving Father, wants to spend time with you and me! Spending time with him is truly what he created us for. James, the author of the New Testament letter of James and a leader of the early church, was Jesus’s brother and had grown up alongside him. James, probably more than anyone else, knew his brother’s heart for relationships. James declares in James 4 that God jealously longs for connection with the spirit he has placed in us. Could there be a greater manifestation of God’s desire to meet with us? He jealously longs to commune with our spirit. That is how he abides with us, speaks with us, and shares himself with us . . . and we are to offer the same in return.
One Response
Love this email, weaving in concepts from the book!
Reading it now down on the Outerbanks of Cape Hatteras.
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