PURITY OF THE WORD

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”
Psalm 119:105

I don’t know if you have ever had a chance to watch the show, 7th Street Theater, but it has become one of those shows that I try to catch as often as possible. The basic concept behind the show is group of theatre actors who work on sketches throughout the week to perform at their Friday night performance. Mixed in with the performance rehearsals are practical life and Bible lessons. It was an episode I watched about a year back that really spoke to me, though.
The performance was set to show the importance of reading the Bible. In one sketch, the performer was playing a coach whose starting quarterback had just gotten injured. He was about to send in the backup quarterback only to learn that the backup had not been reading the playbook. With one injured QB, and another not knowing the plays, the coach was left to forfeit the remainder of the game. The connection was made in showing how God’s Word is the playbook. If we, the team, are not familiar with the plays, how can we expect to be put in the game? How can we expect to win? We must read His word daily.
Another one of the sketches was centered around Psalm 119:105. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” As the group was heading out for lunch, they turned out the light and headed out the door. However, they could not lock the door because they had forgotten the keys inside the building. One of the actors went in but couldn’t see his way around. He called out for one the other actors to flip on the lights, but for some reason the light wouldn’t come on. Maybe it was a burnt bulb or a connection problem, but it pointed out another truth concerning God’s word. Without knowing what God’s word says, we are walking around blind, in the dark. God’s word is more than a flashlight. It is a floodlight. It lights the path we are to take, guiding us, directing us, correcting us even. So for us to push this light to the side because we are ‘too busy’ or ‘not in the mood’ only places us back in the dark.
As I prepare to close today, I want to share with you not only one of the other sketches that caught my attention, but something God has been sharing with me recently. I have for sometime been dealing with a pestering emotion. It wears me out daily. A few nights back I was lying in bed, looking up at the ceiling, praying that God would help me. I asked specifically how I was to overcome this issue. The response I heard seemed too simple. “Read My word. If you want victory, then read My word.”
I could write out for you all the reasons and benefits as to why we should dive into God’s word, but something tells me you already know this. But what struck me hardest in watching this episode was the final sketch. The minister introduced the missionary to speak, giving him the pulpit and as much time as he needed. This missionary arose, went to stand at the pulpit, read his text and then sat down. Perplexed, the pastor again introduced him a second time, but the missionary stayed seated. A third time he was introduced, and this time he again got up and came before the church. His words hit me. “The purity of God’s word doesn’t need my commentary, or anyone else’s. Yet too many times we look to the pastor to explain God’s word instead of going to God Himself.”
I have been writing these devotionals for years now, but I fear that maybe I have become a replacement to some of you for what only God should be. In hearing God speak to me about reading His word, I was convicted. I spend more time listening to others talk about God than I do reading God’s word myself. And there is nothing wrong with ministers or television evangelists; please don’t read that wrong. But if they are becoming our god, then we are in error. The Israelites did everything through Moses when they came out of Egypt, when all along God wanted a personal relationship with each one of them. Have we become the same? Have we been spending more time getting our answers through Moses than through God? Perhaps we need to get back into God’s word, read it for ourselves, question it for ourselves, and find the purity of God’s word again for ourselves.

HUNGRY EYES

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
II Timothy 3:16-17

Following my divorce in 2008, I found myself once again entering the world of dating. I would like to say that the first person I dated in this five year time frame was the one I am married to now, but that would be a lie. The truth is I dated about a handful of ladies, and crushed on about twice as many. A few of them stick out, though. There was the one date where we walked around a shopping center talking about religion for three hours. When that date was done I walked away convinced that I was on the right track with God, and her, well not so much. There was also the one who I met at Starbucks, took ten minutes to decide what she wanted to drink, only to come up with water, and then wrote me a nasty email about how I needed to commit right away to a relationship. Sorry, but she scared me.
One other bad date sticks out, the one in which I laugh every time I think back on it. At the time I was keeping a devotional blog and she stumbled upon it. Seeing I lived close by her, she reached out to me. We emailed back and forth a few times before I decided I would meet a fan of my writings. I pulled up to our meeting spot, an ice cream shop, and found her waiting for me there. We ate our ice cream, shared stories, and walked around the strip mall for an hour or two. The date itself was pleasant, but there was one glitch. The whole time I felt just like the M&M and pretzel being stared at by the creepy hungry eyes guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-OnEe-dauE). Personally the feeling of being craved by her spooked me. However, the desire to crave God’s word, and have hungry eyes for the Bible, excites me. And rightfully so. If we had any idea just how much God’s word can transform us, can restore us, and can recreate us, we may all walk around with hungry eyes.
In II Timothy 3:16-17 we read that God’s word can be useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, therefore allowing us to be fully equipped for every good work. With it we are equipped; without it we are empty handed. Yet let us look at little more in depth at these key words. The God-breathed Word is ‘useful’. This word useful is the Greek word OPHELIMOS, meaning to be helpful, serviceable, or beneficial. If there is anything out there that is going to help me in life, I want it! God’s Word is helpful for ‘teaching’. In the Greek this is the word DIDASKALIA, meaning instruction or education. God’s Word is helpful for ‘rebuking’, which is the Greek word ELEGCHOS. The definition of this word is cross-examining, testing, or proving. God’s Word is helpful for ‘correcting’. The Greek word used here is EPANORTHOSIS, which is defined as straightening up again, or being rectified. Lastly we read that God’s Word is helpful for ‘training’, the Greek word PAIDEIA, meaning a rearing, like the rearing of a child, or the taking of disciplinary actions.
God’s Word, the standard of our lives and what we should be craving, is helpful for instructing us, cross-examining us, straightening us up again, and rearing us. These items sound harsh, but are they not the same steps that we as parents put in place when we give our words to our children. We want our words to serve as our parenting standard because we love our children. When they are obeyed they prove safety. When they neglected, our words become the tool once more that sets the course for the child to follow. Words, both God’s Words to us and our words to our children, are there to ‘equip’, to EXARTIDZO, to complete the one learning, so that he may enter into all that is good. If we have hungry eyes for God’s Word, and daily have God’s Word in us, then we are being transformed into His likeness, and being prepared for the tests that will come at us.
So where are your eyes, and what are they hungry for? Are they craving God’s Word? Or are they craving the world? Oh that I pray we will have a hunger for God that surpasses any temptation, any cheap thrill, any ‘monumental’ side show, and crave Him like never before.

HOW DOES HE TASTE?

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Psalm 34:8

As this year has been progressing, I have felt myself becoming a little more hungry. Now perhaps this hunger I feel could be suppressed by eating an extra snack or two during the day, but something about this hunger seems a little deeper. The food I am eating doesn’t seem to feel me up. Sure, the chocolate is still rich, the chips still salty, and the Mexican food still spicy. But something is missing. I am still craving something.
Being a bit of a bookworm and also a fan of research, I often find myself digging in Scripture for what the Bible really says. When I read the Bible, I normally read it with the intention of looking up words in the Hebrew or Greek so as to get a solid understanding of that word. It was recently that I once more came across Psalm 34:8, which reads, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” With a desire to see just what David was saying, I decided to study the words ‘taste’ and ‘see’.
Taste – TA’AM – to taste, eat, perceive
See – RA’AH – to see, look at, inspect, consider
In looking at just these first two words we see David encouraging us to eat of the Lord, and inspect the Lord. Why? Because as the phrase continues, he wants us to perceive just how good, how pleasant, how excellent (TOWB in the Hebrew) the Lord really is.
When I decided to go to college I chose a school in Oklahoma. I wasn’t trying to get away from my family, it just so happened that this school is where I felt God calling me to attend. But beings that my family was not abundant in finances, I was not able to attend a college weekend and explore the campus. Instead, the knowledge I had of the school was based on what I read in pamphlets, heard from current and past students, and saw on the school’s daily prayer show. When I finally arrived at the school, there was so much more to be experienced. The buildings were bigger than I had pictured in my mind. The campus itself was bigger. The student life was abundant with clubs and organizations I had not even fathomed. And as I walked the sidewalks between the classes, dorms, cafeteria, chapel, and library, I began to take in for myself the fullness of this place. I began to see then how both my imagination and the reports of others failed in comparison. In this case, what I saw was becoming my knowledge of the school instead of the knowledge of someone else.
I can attest this same concept in some ways to the birth of my children. While my children were both in the womb, I did not know them fully. I knew I was having a child, but with both we did not know the gender till the actual delivery. With both there was that feeling of excitement in the air. But the details were not known. Would the baby be a boy or girl? Would the baby have brown hair, blonde hair, or no hair? Would the child be colic, or would the child be one to rarely fuss? As long as the child was in the womb, these questions could not be answered. I could only wonder. However, once the birth happened I was then able to begin to know the child for myself. And this is what God is wanting of us – to know Him for ourselves.
I am reminded of Moses also. Moses became the channel of communication between God and the people. But this was never supposed to have been. In Exodus 20:18-19 we read, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” God wanted a relationship with His people, to talk directly with them, but they refused a relationship with Him. Instead, their whole experience in the desert was based on Moses’ relationship with God as opposed to their own personal relationship. While they may have been hungry and thirsty to get out of Egypt, they did not appear to be hungry and thirsty enough to seek God for themselves.
I am pretty sure that this hunger that I have been puzzled with isn’t as related to food as I may have first thought. In fact, I do not think it is food related at all. What I have been craving is not chocolate, chips, or Mexican food, but rather God. My spirit has been craving something deeper, something that last more than just a few minutes on the lips and a lifetime on the hips. And perhaps this is the same craving you have been having. It is easy to fill our bodies with food because we know we need to. Yet we must not neglect our spirits. Our spirits too are hungry, craving the flavors of God. So then we must ask of ourselves, are we desirous to taste and see just how good God really is?