Neither life nor busyness nor a “massive music festival” shall cause me to miss the best meal of everyday: The Word of God!
Your words came and I ate them.
Summer Bible Reading PLAN: read through the New Testament and the Psalms over the 14 weeks of summer. Ideally, about 4 chapters or 20 unhurried minutes a day. Meditate on them, internalize them, live them and be renewed and restored by them.
Ahem….right.
Reality and true confessions: I have “skipped” a few days and then can’t catch up on my-self-imposed “catch-up days,” AND I have zoomed through chapters, realizing later, I have no idea what they even said. So then, how could I possibly meditate on them??? Couldn’t. So, I must re-read…Am I supposed to confess this publicly? Well, I did.
Pray for me, friends and fellow-sojourners. And catch me when I slack.
I wish to be diamond-dripping RICH with the indwelling word by summer’s end. You, too, I hope!
As Kent Henry sings (and we sing along!)
Lord, I live by Your Word
Lord, I live by every word from Your mouth
And I’m like a tree by a stream
I’m bearing fruit, my leaf is green
All that I do is prospering
O, Lord, I live by Your Word.
I am a little behind on my schedule. Not woefully. Just a little.
I am about halfway through 2 Corinthians. There are moments when I am tempted to think: perhaps I should have just read the Psalms for summer. But since the Word of God is life-giving, living and active: wow, I need that in me. The more Word, the better!
More importantly, I still, with busyness of life and love, relationships and aggravations, the intensity of the exciting before and after of Heaven Fest over the next month and a half, wasted time and way-too-jammed-packed time, too – well, sometimes there isn’t a place for the Word to live, inhabit and dwell as it deserves. So it isn’t even the reading of it, just making sure it gets “done,”, it is the doing/the meditating on/the rich possession of the Word I must work on.
Like, you can’t just buy a packet of seeds and hope for a harvest. You must turn and prepare the soil. You must nurture it with rain and sunshine. And while it is still a tender shoot, you must protect it in your heart, for the strong winds and storms and the hail will come.
You can’t just read it and walk away – back into life without knowing that it needs a place to be rooted in your heart.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1.22-24 NIV
So, maybe, as I enter week 6 of 14 (are the rest of you hanging in there with me??), I will be able to give the Word of Christ the home it deserves in me. And what a benefit to me in the process.
When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
LORD God Almighty. Jeremiah 15.16 NIV
They feed me, Your words do, LORD. They nourish my spirit.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the servant of God[ may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2. Timothy 3.16-17 NIV
Your Word, LORD, equips me, trains me, corrects me, gets me ready for all this fun, crazy-good Kingdom work You let me participate in. I mean – I NEED that! Thank-You, Lord!
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4.12 NIV
Alive and active? Then I want that in ME! Yes, please!
More than good life lessons and moralizing, greater than wise words printed on a page, not just historical teaching or religious guideline, His Word is an ongoing-active-sharp-surgical-white-hot-purifying-judging-healing-clarification-bringing double-edged sword. Cut me through, LORD!
THIS WEEK, God willing and the creek don’t rise (and I am pretty sure He is willing), July 10 – 16: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians; Psalms 59 – 70
Also known as the Go Eat Pop Corn section of the New Testament. Years ago some one told me the way they remembered the order of these Pauline Epistles was to give them this acronym. Thus Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians became Go-Eat-Pop-Corn, or for some people “God’s Electric Power Company.” It is funny because I think it is really just easier to remember Galatians-Ephesians-Philippians-Colossians. But I do still have to quick-sing the Books of the Bible song I learned as a girl when I am trying to get to a minor prophet in the O.T. super fast. *smile
May the Word of Christ dwell richly in you this week, and in me, too!
Ahem….right.
