Preloader

I have found that a lovely thing to do is to go back and read my journals or thumb through the Bibles that I have used in the past. I even like to go back through my favorite Christian books and read the highlighted parts. I am a highlighter and an underliner. Sometimes I even love a book so much that I make notes from the highlighted parts and then highlight the notes. These are things I don’t ever want to forget. 

Inevitably, all of this ends up leading me to reflect on Scripture, and I see God’s Spirit moving me through phases of life, recalling to my mind Christ’s overwhelming love for me in various past circumstances, and reminding me that all through life God has used His Word to work His way in me.

During my college years, I was into The Living Bible. My copy from all those years ago is still very much intact, but the pages are not as white as they once were. I was just getting into writing on the inside of the covers, so there’s not as much as there are in my later Bibles; even so, Isaiah 51:12 is written there: “I, even I, am he who comforts you and gives you all this joy. So what right have you to fear mere mortal men, who wither like the grass and disappear?”

“ 'I, even I, am he who comforts you and gives you all this joy. So what right have you to fear mere mortal men, who wither like the grass and disappear?' Isaiah 51:12 ”

In my notes, I referenced some promises to claim in the summer of 1972—a summer I spent teaching five and six-year-olds at a day camp in Queens, New York. I noted that when I got discouraged I should read 2 Corinthians 12, John 17, Psalm 25, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:5-8; and for sinning and sorrow I should see Lamentations 3.

The next heavily used Bible was the one I had as I went through the breakup of my marriage. The pages are worn and the binding hasn’t broken completely, but it is barely holding together. Some papers on the inside include sermon and conference notes written on scraps of paper I found in my purse at the time. A flattened fall oak leaf is wedged in pages toward mid-book. I remember my youngest daughter bringing it to me many years ago. 

A favorite quote from Jerry Sittser’s book, The Will of God as a Way of Life, is inscribed on the front inside cover: “The will of God consists of a life lived for God right where we are. It is not a set of ideal circumstances we face.” This is a remarkable statement, especially from Jerry who lost his mother, wife, and daughter in the same tragic automobile accident.

“ “The will of God consists of a life lived for God right where we are. It is not a set of ideal circumstances we face.” -Jerry Sittser ”

 

Scripture verses written out here include Romans 12:2: “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The words may prove are underlined. Proverbs 18:10 is also quoted: “Run to the LORD. You will be safe there.”

Finally, this promise: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Other references noted but not written out indicate that I was going through a spiritual transformation, being made new; that my safety was in the Lord. And on some vacation during those years, I had noted that Psalms 107-08 and 127-28 had become particularly meaningful. Or course, every time I see these references, I must look them up and reread and marvel at their impact on my life back then, and even more awesome, still.

The truths of Scripture should abound and resonate in our innermost beings all the time. Constantly they should pierce our hearts, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Distractions, disappointments, and even celebrations often lure us away from God’s Word.  But the remarkable thing is that though we wander, that same Word draws us back and invites us to simply rest in its truth again.

Just meditating on the Word never tires us, but reconnects us with the Spirit of the Author, the same Spirit which first permeated the minds of the human writers so that the words poured forth from their pens as though Another was actually writing. Of course, that was the case. How else would the words of so many men, some living centuries away from the others, be consistent with one another, proclaiming the same Word.

The remarkable thing is that though we wander, that same Word draws us back and invites us to simply rest in its truth again.

 

We are told to hold fast “to the word of life” in Philippians 2:16. We are admonished in Deuteronomy 8:3 that we cannot live merely on food, “but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The longest chapter of any book in the Bible, Psalm 119, speaks of the importance of the Word; urges us to “store” it up in our hearts, “hope” in it, and be guided by its “light” (vs. 11, 81, 105). Psalm 33:4 claims that “the word of the LORD is upright,” and in Jesus’ prayer for His people in John 17:17, He prays that we believers would be sanctified “in the truth,” pointing out again that the truth is “your word.”

I remember when I first understood that God’s Word was made manifest in Jesus. The joy of seeing that connection and its truth appearing over and over again in Scripture. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” says John 1:1. John 1:14 clarifies that even more. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Just as we keep our focus on Jesus, seeking Him throughout each day, we are able to reinforce our faith by spending much time in His written Word. Such harmonious truth!

Last spring, living under a quarantine and unable to go to church, I began watching the online service from my son’s church in Texas. I had been there in February when the pastor had begun a preaching series on Proverbs. I was very interested in hearing the series because I had just finished going through the Book of Proverbs on my own, studying it, underlining and outlining it.

So after hearing a sermon on Proverbs 3, the next day I looked back into my own notes from that chapter, and I discovered that included in my notes was a reference back to notes from one of my favorite books, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller. What I read, I will share in a moment; but the fact that all these connections were being made in notes taken weeks and years earlier, struck me and inspired me to write in my journal on March 30, 2020: “God brought something in my Bible notes to my attention this morning. I love how He does that, interweaving His Word into daily life.”

“ I love how He does that, interweaving His Word into daily life. ”

 

The golden nugget I had rediscovered that morning from A Praying Life was this: “My intuition is being mastered by God!” [Isn’t that awesome?] “Where Christians go wrong: By immersing in Word only—not listening [watch and pray]. Or by immersing in spirit only—elevating human intuition. The spirit must be backed by the Word.”


My notes on Proverbs 3 had recorded a footnote reference from my Bible from Psalm 25:14 which says, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, /and he makes known to them his covenant.” Yes. God makes known His Word to His friends. Back in my Proverbs notes was one more explanation from Miller’s book about all this. “As I saturate my life with the Word, I give the Spirit a vocabulary to personalize the Word to me.” It is impossible to get enough of God’s Word just as it is impossible for God not to use His Word in my life.

Then, just this morning, during my reading, studying, and meditation time, my attention was drawn to Hebrews 10, where the thoughts I just mentioned were reiterated once again. In this passage of God’s Word, the purpose of the Word, Christ, is described so beautifully, tying old and new Covenants all together. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them/ after those days, declares the Lord:/ I will put my laws on their hearts,/ and write them on their minds’” (Hebrews 10:12-16).

“ To know God is to know His Word. To know God is to know Christ the Word. ”

 

George Mueller, the English renowned evangelist who started schools and orphanages in 19th century England, once said, “Many times when I could have gone insane from worry, I was at peace because my soul believed the truth of God’s promises. God’s Word, together with the whole character of God, as He has revealed Himself, settles all questions. His unchangeable love and His infinite wisdom calmed me….It is written, ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.’”

To know God is to know His Word. To know God is to know Christ the Word.But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). It is impossible to grow or mature in the Christian faith without a complete sell-out to the Word. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). “So shall Christ the Word, and his word, be my strength and comfort” (The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions).

                                                                

tags: Truth

Send Me A Message