Its been a while!
It has been a while since my last blog, a very long while! So, I thought that I would write this blog to reinvigorate this forum, and outreach. I can’t promise that this will be a regular blog but am looking at maybe once a month (God willing) that I will be able to blog.
Let me ask you a question. When was the last time that you sat down with the word of God, read it with the expectance that God will speak to you through His word?
A number of years ago I heard the stats of a study that the Australian bible society did. They asked the question “how often do you read the bible”. The answer was shocking to say the least. The stats? 8 out of 10 Australian Christians DO NOT have a regular habit of reading His word. Yet any born again believer would say that the bible is God’s word, yet they are not reading His word.
How can a believer then grow in their faith, how can they know what it means to live a life that is holy and pleasing to God if they don’t read the manual that God has given us? How can a believer stand strong in the face of adversity and compromise if they are not looking to Him, hearing Him speak through His word? The Psalmist in Psalm 119 writes, Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
The plain facts are this. God speaks mainly through His word. It is true that He speaks in other ways, but that is the exception, not the norm. The writer of Hebrews has this to say on this, Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. God has spoken to us through His Son, the Logos, the word. That word (the Logos, the Son) became flesh and dwelt among us. Then Jesus was crucified, was raised on the third day, and after 40 days ascended into heaven to be our high priest. We know this because we have the bible, His word, and when we read His word, with faith, and expectancy, He speaks.
This is not because the bible as a book has any power, its paper and ink, but when this is read with faith in Christ it becomes a living word, a living Logos that speaks into our very lives, again the author of Hebrews says, Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Lord sees into our hearts, and the Holy Spirit works in us, as we work with Him to overcome those things which hinder us in being fruitful for His kingdom.
So, I ask again the question I asked at the beginning of this blog, when was the last time that you sat down with the word of God, read it with the expectance that God will speak to you through His word? I would like to encourage you today to sit somewhere comfortable with the word of God and read, not as a book, but as someone waiting to hear the Lord speak. I can guarantee you that He will speak to you. It maybe not what you want to hear, but it will be want you need to hear.
I do not know what God is going to say to you, but I know what we all want to hear on that day when we stand before Him, welcome good and faithful servant.
Go and read His word, and hear the voice of your saviour
In Christ our redeemer Ps Jeff