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The Word...Epistle 1.1 a revelation to a friend very dear to us. Quite lengthy so i had to divide them in a series of posts...hope this serves as a blessing and encouragement to you as it has been to me and some friends to whom this letter was dedicated. here's the first part... We cannot truly say that we have Jesus in our hearts when we do not have His Word, too. Jesus and the Word are one. The Word is not just a series of words and sentences coming from the mouth of Jesus, He is the Word! He is what He speaks! He charged us to abide in Him (the Living Word) and let His Word (the spoken Word) abide in us (John 15:7). The Church must get back to the Word. The Word is Who Jesus is. The Word created the heavens and the earth. The Word opened the Red Sea, and the Jordan River. The Word crumbled the walls of Jericho. The Word smote Goliath and the enemies of Israel. The Word healed the sick and the infirm. The Word opened blind eyes and deaf ears. The Word cast out demons. The Word raised the dead. The Word stopped the stormy seas. The Word multiplied the fishes and the loaves, and changed water into wine. The Word delivered the people from every bondage. Hallelujah! THE WORD! Oh, how I love the Word! (Ps. 119:97) We have more of the world in our hearts than the Word. We always have a thousand and one excuses why we have not hidden the Word in our hearts. We believe and speak with what is in our hearts. How can we believe the Word when we do not have Him in our hearts? Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word (Rom. 10:7). Doubt comes by hearing and hearing the world. The abundance of our hearts reveal who we really are. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also (Matt. 6:21). How can we fill our hearts with the Word while it may still be filled with the world? When Mary was about to give birth to Jesus, every inn was busy and filled to capacity. No inn was willing to receive the Son of God. She had to give birth instead in a lowly manger. Before a fully occupied inn can check in new clients it has to check out first the old ones. That’s the price we have to be willing to pay. Let the old occupants get mad at us as we drive them out our inns and allow the birth of Jesus (the Word) instead! To get the Word in, we must get the world out. Starve the flesh, and satiate the spirit. This may take a long and tedious process and many times it will hurt. Often times it will take the discipline and the chastisement of the Lord (Heb. 12:5-11) and the suffering of our flesh (1 Pt. 4:1-2). We cannot allow the temptations, the cares, the riches, and the pleasures of this life to choke the Word (Lk. 8:13-14). The Lord is now our inheritance, not the world nor this life. It will cost us our very lives, and we only have one life to give. Let’s live it for God’s glory. We can only expect like Moses (after 40 long years of waiting in the wilderness of Midian) to have a “burning bush” experience when the Lord is through burning the bushes in our hearts. Like him, let’s bring our blank tablets of stone (our empty hearts) up the mountain and let God write His Word on them. Praise God! Those Christians who are too busy with mere Christian activities and mundane things and do not have the Word in their hearts on a daily basis, have nothing but religion. They have “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5). It is the Word that gives us a relationship with the Father. It is the Word that cleanses and sanctifies us. It is the Word that makes us righteous before God. It is the Word that gives us wisdom in all things. It is the Word that empowers us to walk as Jesus walked. It is the Word! Glory to God! shagged on 4/25/2009 11:38:00 AM Comments: Post a Comment