Devoted to the Word

Intro

When we think about most books they run the gamut from absurd to normal, from Holy to grotesque and everything in between. Books and reading are a fundamental aspect of our lives. Those who cannot read are at a huge disadvantage in this life because our lives are full of words. I have often heard it said from even many of you that you aren’t readers and to that I say phooey. You read all the time, from text messages, to emails, to signs, to words on screens, newspapers, magazines, letters, websites the list can go on and on. Reading is all around us so to say that you aren’t a reader is an excuse for you not to read anything longer than a few paragraphs. The truth is you have convinced yourself that you aren’t a reader simply because you believe that you don’t enjoy reading long books. Now here is a little truth you need to hear very few people are truly natural readers. My Wife and my Son are natural readers, they have always loved reading and sometimes when they pick up a book they have a hard time putting it down. My oldest sister is also a natural reader but she takes it to another level in that she would rather read than do pretty much any other form of entertainment. Last I asked her she was working her way through every award winning book ever written. There is rarely a time when have seen my sister Teresa that she has not been reading something. Growing up with Teresa as a sister I thought that in order to be a good reader I had to be like her and because I wasn’t a voracious reader I believed that I didn’t actually like reading. However, as I have come into my adulthood I have found that what I mistook for not liking reading was actually a lack of reading. Once I started reading and then continued reading and practiced at reading I found that I was actually a pretty good reader. I will never be an extremely fast reader and I will sometimes annoy my wife when she catches me whispering the words written on the page instead of silently in my mind but I can no longer say that I am not a reader, and neither should you. Instead you should keep trying until you figure it out, because the saying I hear over and over is this “Readers are Leaders”. When we intake good books they stay with us in a way that nothing else can. Reading allows you to learn in a way that you can’t in a classroom, or from a screen.

Now enough about why reading is a good thing. The point of all this is that we have a book that is worth reading and it is worth us investing huge amounts of time in. The Prophet Jeremiah said, Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” The beauty of the Bible is that it is a Meal for us to ingest. I have said it before and I will say it again, “these are just words on a page.” These words hold within them the message of God, the Hope of the Gospel, the promise of heaven, and the Glory of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” When we apply the word of God to our lives grows within us and transforms us into the likeness of Christ. For those of us here who are believers that should excite you it should fill you with wonder and awe. The Bible isn’t a mythical tale, it isn’t a biography, it isn’t history book, it isn’t a collection of short stories. The Bible is a message from the God of creation and in it you will find accounts that seem like myths, the lives of men and women who deserve to have their biographies written down, the history of all creation and so many accounts of people, places, and events that they are almost too numerous to count but all of it points to the real subject the Greatness and Awesomeness of our God and His love for us His rebellious creations.

Read with Me 1 Peter 1:23-2:3

Scripture Brings New Life - 1 Peter 1:23-25

Corruptible to Incorruptible

The Corruptible is where I want to start because this is where God started after Adam and Eve fell into sin. Anyone can read the Bible. There are not special glasses you have to wear there isn’t a secret language you have to learn and there aren’t special people who can read it th se who can’t. The Bible is open to everyone to read and in fact throughout history even the most non religious among us have read it and benefited from it. Benjamin Franklin one of the least religious among the founding fathers believed that even though he wasn’t certain about how God ruled he was certain that reading and applying the Bible to our lives is what builds a good life, “A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district; all studied and appreciated as they merit; are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.” The principles that are placed in the Bible aren’t just good principles to believe if you are a Christian they are good for the morality of all humanity.

So many would love to take the Bible out of every aspect of their lives but the truth is the Bible is the foundation of our civilization. We know what it means to be morally right and civically righteous not by some internal instinct, no our morality is based off of Biblical principles. The non religious believe they will find some sort of utopia, a place unshackled from the constraints of religion and the small mindedness of the religious if only they can throw out the Bible. However, where these Biblical principles have broken down or have been set aside it is there where we see the greatest amounts of corruption and despair. Where the Bible has not only been allowed to thrive but more importantly where the Bible is revered and applied we see thriving communities and moral culture. Sure the Bible can also be used in devious means but that is not a strike against the Bible it is a strike against those who would use it for their evil desires and we must stand up against such evilness.

What God wanted to give us way back in Genesis was a life worth living, a life spent worshiping the God of creation. What we instead opted for was the opposite a life filled with hardship, brokenness, consequences, hurts, pains, and death all because we chose the corrupted over the incorruptible. However through the pages of this book we read that, humanity has a problem. For some reason we see ourselves as the center of the universe. Everything in our world revolves around us we think that if a god exists then he should be at our very beck and call. Peter reminds us though that we aren’t as special as we think we are. In verse 24 Peter quotes the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 40:6–8 “The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”” Humanity is nothing more than grass, meaning that it can have the picture of health one day and then the next die or wither away. Therefore, if the world itself revolves around us and we are here today and gone tomorrow then we might want to find something that has a bit more staying power to believe in. People we need the Word of God more than ever in our world today because the corrupted don’t realize the dangerous path that they are on.

God knows that man is corrupted by sin and is in need of being put straight therefore in His Omniscience, His absolute perfect knowledge. God gave us His words written down through the hands of many authors over the course of thousands of years in order for us to have the wisdom of God, the means to understand our sinfulness, the wonder of God’s holiness, the astonishing sacrifice of Jesus, the mercy of salvation, and the hope of eternity. All these things are given to us, the corrupted, in order that we might see our corruption and desire something far better. Something beyond us, Something holy and incorruptible.

Scripture Transforms us - 1 Peter 2:1-3

Scripture leads the corrupted toward the incorruptible and in doing so we the corrupted who have no means of which to fix our lives on our own are given a gift. The gift of mercy, the gift of forgiveness, the gift of leaving our corruption behind and replacing it with the incorruption of Jesus. Last week I quoted the hymn “Before the Throne of God above” and I once again want to point you to the words of that beautiful song, Because the sinless Savior died, ‌my sinful soul is counted free;‌ for God the Just is satisfied‌ to look on Him and pardon me;.” This is the wonder of our God. God who is perfect and just has every reason to wipe us off the face of this earth because of our sin but He doesn’t because He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins. And if we will ask for the forgiveness that comes only through the work of Christ on the Cross then Jesus covers our sin with His sacrifice. Peter used the words of Jesus when he call this in verse 23, “having been born again” because in essence that is what is happening here we are born again. Upon accepting Jesus as our Savior we lose all that we thought we were and we become as infants once again.

Babe to Mature

This is why in chapter 2 Peter equates the new believer with that of a newborn who must learn to drink in the milk of the Word. To have the faith of a child is a beautiful thing. When you play with a baby they are absolutely trusting because they do not know or comprehend fear. Women hate it but men will often take their children and throw them in the air just to watch them light up with smiles and to squeal with joy. They have absolute trust that they will be caught by a father who loves them and men if you are going to do this you had better be the type of men who will catch them and who won’t take this too far. But it is a picture of what God does with us. When we become believers in Jesus Christ we have to place all of our trust in the Christ of the Bible whose actions 2000 years ago are still living and active giving mercy and forgiveness to all who would believe today. That is kind of like being thrown in the air and expecting God to catch you. Jesus told us Himself that this childlike faith is necessary for the new believer Luke 18:17 “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”” We enter the family of God not with trepidation or tiptoeing in we have to enter believing that I am in desperate need of forgiveness and only God can provide it. Where do we learn that? Through the Word of God being applied to our lives.

This pure milk of the Word begins to sustain us it begins to make us grow and as we continue to read and apply it to our lives we are transformed or conformed into the likeness of Christ. But it is also here where our growth can be stunted. You see we should be growing so much that we no longer want a liquid diet and we start to crave solid foods. However, liquids are easier on us. If we never get past a few quaint Bible stories and become challenged to not just sit and listen but to speak up and or teach others then our spiritual growth will be stunted. If in your entire Christian experience you have never stepped out and tried to read and understand the Bible on your own, or if you never spoke up in a Bible study in order to ask or answer questions, or if you never tried to help someone else understand the scriptures. You see the Word of God goes deeper than Noah’s ark, David and Goliath, and Baby Jesus. There is a depth to the scriptures that will never be completely explored and yet it should be our goal to try. To not try will leave us as babes maturity wise and that is not a good thing. Paul had to chastise the Corinthians for just such a problem, 1 Corinthians 3:2 “I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;”

We need to drink it in the Word of God as the pure milk but it cannot end there instead we must mature in our faith. As we grow we learn to ingest a bit more and a bit more till like the Prophet Jeremiah said earlier we begin to eat it up. This leads us to want more and more of the good steak of the scriptures, where we can dig in and be filled up with the Lords goodness and faithfulness.

Scripture Requires us to do something about it - James 1:22-25

Doers of the Word:

David understood this kind of feast, Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” As we mature the goodness of the Lord fills us and He conforms our lives into His image. This is the maturing process of a Christian, and in order for it to continue growing in us there are steps we must take. I like to use James 1 as a reminder to myself that in reading the Word I can’t let it just be like any other book instead I have to listen but more importantly I have to obey, James 1:22–25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” My desire is to both hear and obey the Word and in order to do that I have to put holy habits into place in my life.

Read it

The first is that you and I must read the word of God. We can’t feast on the word if we aren’t reading it. I have not always been very good at my daily devotions and I can’t say that I am perfect in them either but you know what that has also become a strength of them. I have found that if I make my daily Bible reading a strict regimen then I am defeated when I don’t get it in. I feel like I have let not God down and I am failing at being a Christian and a Pastor. However, when I make my devotion more about quality time with God as opposed to quantity I find that my time with Him is much more profitable.

Memorize it

The next holy habit I believe is really helpful is Memorization. A few years back I was pretty beat up spiritually and I had the opportunity to be counseled by a Biblical counselor and it was wonderful. One of the truths that I needed to hear had to do with my fear of man. I wanted everyone to like me and respect me but that is not possible and the counselor pointed out that the only one in my life that I really need to like and respect me with God Himself and He has already told me that he does, John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” I needed so desperately to here and believe this that I made it a point to begin to put this scripture to memory. And I cannot tell you the amount of times I have needed these words in my life. And as I continue to mature and grow God is constantly adding scripture to my life and I have a need to put it to memory. Now I know scripture memorization is one of those things that people believe they can’t do even more than being a reader, but I am here to tell you you can. There many apps out there for your phone that can help there are also quite a few websites and blogs that will give you tips on how to do this more effectively. The key to any of it though is just to keep trying and then practice, practice, practice. The words of Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” If you aren’t memorizing scripture then you are hiding the Word of God in your heart.

Meditate on it

The last Holy habit that I want to point out today is the act of meditating on the Word of God. This is act of allowing the Word of God to wash over you and then mulling on it, living with it and allowing it to make you uncomfortable. I have been told that a good pair of boots has to be worn for a good amount of time before they are truly good. It takes time for the leather to conform to the contours of your feet and ankles, but in time an OK fit with become near perfect and really comfortable. In other words you need to live with the comfortableness for a time in order for them to become useful. This is sometimes how scripture can affect us. The Word of God can be hard to grasp and even harder to apply but as we learn to live with it and we let it sink in beyond skin deep we find that it is beautiful and good. This act of meditation draws us closer to God and we give God more and more permission in our lives to change them from the inside out.