Happy Thursday Church,
I hope and pray you are having a wonderful week! Today, I was reading through Jude with someone, and I noticed something that I never noticed before Now, what is interesting about this, is that I have preached through Jude before. Which means that I have probably given 40-50 hrs of my life to trying to get my arms around and communicate these 25 verses in the Bible.
And I still missed something.
Isn’t this quality of the Bible amazing? It has a profound depth. It’s like swimming in an infinity pool: we can dig and dig and dig, and there’s still more to go. Yet, it is something that opens itself up to us when we are just learning the basics and can’t quite walk yet. God has given us the Bible to confound our earthly wisdom, to humble us to our knees, to compel us to study and learn and grow. Yet, it is a book that the youngest and the simplest can profit from. The Scriptures of Christ are simply without compare.
Which means (at least) two things:
1) If we would learn from them, we must work hard. The Bible speaks to us cumulatively. Insights in Scripture come to us one by one. If we don’t spend time climbing up the mountain, we’ll never see the vista. If who don’t plant the seeds, we never enjoy the harvest. If we are not disciplined in God’s Word, we will never enjoy the full “truth in due season” (Psalm 1).
2) If we are at our rope’s end, there is no better place to turn than God’s Word. If we are treading water to keep our head above the waves, if we are gasping for breath, if we are numb to everything around us, there is no better place to turn than God’s Word. It is a light in a dark place, a warm fire in a cold world, a cup of water for a parched soul.
Christian, God’s Word is for you, to take hold of, to grasp, and to read. “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word of the LORD.” (Deut 8:3) So take it and live.
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Matt