If
you found a letter written to you by your earthly father, you would no doubt
read it so many times that the paper would soon become worn. It wouldn’t become
something you knew by rote; every word would instead be taken to heart and
meditated upon. As believers, God’s Word should hold the same kind of draw for
us as we think of it as a sort of history lesson and guidebook for
spirit-filled Christian life, combined with the exquisite expression of our
Father’s deep and abiding love for us.
Psalm
139, for instance, tells us that our Father knows us...He pays attention to the
most minute details of our lives. In addition to so many similar love letters
throughout scripture, the most valuable education we might ever receive also
comes by way of God’s instructions for us through scripture. Rather than
mandating that we become obsessed with the letter of the law in religiosity,
the scriptures offer us a blueprint for our lives as followers of Christ,
directly from the heart of our Father.
God’s
intention is that we study and know His word so that we can adjust our lives to
follow it as well as come to understand it so well that we can easily share it
with others. Particularly in the New Testament, the letters assembled clearly
point the way toward better serving God through our lives within the church.
For example, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, Paul warns the church
not to fall into the trap of looking at leaders, or comparing them so that one
seems better than the other.
1 Corinthians 4:6 (New Living
Translation)
6 Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to
illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted
from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense
of another.
When
he wrote 2 Timothy, Paul admonished the church leader to work hard and study
the Word so that he could correctly explain it to church members looking to him
for guidance.
2 Timothy 2:15 (New Living
Translation)
15Work hard so you can present
yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not
need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.
As
members of the church and servants of Jesus Christ, our life’s blood comes
directly from him; and his guidance, inspiration and love for us trickles down
from every scriptural word. Like reading a love letter from our precious
Father, the more deeply we know and understand scripture, the closer we become
to him, and the more enabled we will be to share his love with those around us.
# # #
Sandie leads a team of writers in creating the Living It Out daily Bible study for CedarCreek Church. Today's devotion is borrowed from her Living It Out study on the role of God's Word in our daily lives. If you enjoyed it, feel free to check out the daily
studies by e-mail or audio podcast by clicking HERE.
After my dad went home to Jesus, I found a bunch of his love letters to mom. I read those over and over, getting to know a side of my dad I hadn't seen. Your analogy reminds me to read it that way. Thank you, Sandie. Too often, it can become something we "do" instead of something we experience.
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