The Word

The Word is God
John 1:1
The Word is Eternal
John 1:2
The Word is Truth
Psalm 119:160, John 8:31-32, John 17:7

To pursue The Word is to pursue an eternity of jaw dropping discovery.

There is nothing utilitarian about the discovery of truth in The Word of God. The pursuit is an expression of desire, which launches from the heart. It’s an admission of passion for your Maker. It’s the expression of hope from one eager to know and fulfill their purpose for living. It’s VERY different than pursuing knowledge. Knowledge, while valuable, is a gateway to something beyond, and far more important. By itself, it yields nothing of eternal value.

When you ingest The Word of God, you take it in to your mind through reading and study (knowledge), you let it move to your heart through meditation (wisdom), and then you let it influence the way you live (transformation). I’m conscious that every time this transformative process takes place, I have just experienced a work of the Spirit. Only God, by His Spirit, reveals truth. Only God, by His Spirit, enables me to actualize that truth.

I tell my students that to open The Word of God, is to step through the wardrobe door, a la CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. God waits there for the traveler, eager for them to explore, to discover the riches of the land. The whole process of discovery is relational at its core. That stands to reason since God is relational at His core.

Sit with The Word; sit with God, and you are having the half of a conversation where you’re quiet and He’s speaking (bring a pad and pencil. No, it’s more like, bring a backpack and great hiking shoes!). Two essential things transpire. One is the discovery of who you are, a being created in the image of God, intrinsically valuable, unique to any other created being in history, and deeply loved by your Maker. The second is this. God gives you a lens into Himself. You see bits and pieces of the Living God. You see His nature, His character, His heart, His majesty, His supremacy, and on and on and on…because you can never know the whole of Him. Thus, eternity, which doesn’t start upon His return. We are living it now.