Transcript of Midweek Meditations podcast episode aired on Wednesday, 4th November 2020.
What does your Bible look like? Maybe your Bible is well‑worn and the cover is falling apart. The pages of your Bible are filled with markings. Right now, it’s lying open on your bedside table or desk. Or maybe, you don’t even know where it is. It’s lying under a pile of other books. You can’t think about the last time you actually used it.
A Muslim would be horrified by all of the above? In Islam, there are certain rules about how you handle the Qur’an. To use or treat a Holy Book in any of the above examples is out of the question. However, whatever the state of your Bible and its present location, as we meditate on God’s Word, there’s something more important we need to grasp.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians:
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV)
As a pastor, the greatest reward of my ministry is when a person receives the message of the gospel and the word of God as truth. Not my truth, not a religious truth, but the actual truth, the actual word of God.
Whether through the preaching of God’s Word or a presentation of the gospel message resulting in faith and salvation, nothing else tops the moment when someone hears the word of God from God himself.
While I hope you treat your Bible with care and respect, I couldn’t care less what you do with it if you don’t believe and receive the word of God as the very words of God himself. The words of God himself can’t be contained in some book. They exist for us, not for God.
However, if you believe and receive the word of God as the very words of God himself, then it should be at work in you. On a practical level, the word of God should be active in our lives in some way, shape, or form.
Whether you read it, listen to it, recite it, meditate on it, that’s not the point. But it should be active in your life, working in you to transform you into the image and likeness of Jesus, or as Paul says to the Thessalonians, becoming imitators of the Lord Jesus (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
Do you believe the Bible, this Holy Book, is more than a book? Do you believe it contains the very words of God himself? If you do, what will you do with it? Will you feed on it and allow it to transform you, becoming an imitator of the Lord Jesus? Maybe the first step is to get it out and open it…
Let’s pray.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you it was kept for us for over 2000 years. We thank you that you speak through your word; and we pray you that you will continue to speak to us.
Holy Spirit, bring to light the truth of your word. Bring us wisdom and understanding, knowledge and insight, so that we may continue to glory and live for our Lord Jesus. So we ask you may continue to teach us.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
