Word Church

"Go where you are sent, stay where you're put, and do what you're asked." Major Ian Thomas

We often do not stay where we are put and do what we are asked because of the trials we face where we are sent. We tend to think that we are meant for more glory in the present than the trials allow and we must go searching until we find that glory or escape the trials that are keeping us from a realized glory in the present. Like Israel we groan to be free from slavery in Egypt and after we are set free into trials we groan for the glory of leeks and melons that were found back in bondage. And yet there is nothing wrong with a yearning for glory. It is the reality of being an image bearer of the all glorious God who is himself the essence of glory. But as broken image bearers we are confused how that glory we long for is actually fulfilled to us.

In Deuteronomy 8:3 we are taught that man does not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And in 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul tells us that the Word of God is his breathed out word. Therefore that which we are meant to live upon is the Scriptures. But what we often miss in the Deuteronomy passage is what God tells his people precedes finding out that the Word of God is the true food. He tells us there that he humbled them bringing trials upon them so that they would know that we do not live on bread alone. It is the trials that lead God’s people to his Word where they find that in the midst of unattained glory in trial God is the all satisfying and sufficient God who reveals himself to his people as the true food. Therefore trials bring us to God’s means of giving himself to us in all his glory through his word. The glory we long for as the image bearers of God is really the glory of our Creator and Redeemer and he reveals himself to us in his Word in the midst of trials. Therefore if where we are sent and put brings us into trials it is so that we may learn to do what is asked, holding fast to the Word of God and finding the all glorious God feeding us through the means of his Word. But in these days of modernity where relativism and experiencing God through self fulfilled means rules the day we need to be reminded of why we can stay put on the Scriptures.

Steven Lawson addressed this issue at this years Ligonier Conference in Orlando by giving ten reason why he as an evangelical Christian is persuaded the Bible is the Word of God. Here the following ten reasons: The Bible’s Direct Claims, Perfect Unity, Reliable Transmission, Historical Accuracy, Scientific Accuracy, Fulfilled Prophecies, Jesus Christ’s Testimony to the Bible, Amazing Indestructibility, Ethical Superiority, and the Bibles Supernatural Power. You can listen to his excellent message online at ligonier.org.

The Bible is God’s sole source of authority in the life of the church. Christ rules over us through his Word and by the Spirit. Therefore we must hold fast to the Scriptures alone in the midst of the trials of this life as he brings us through a life of redemption until we are glorified with him. Learn to read, study and memorize God’s Word. Prayerfully hear it preached and taught as you draw near to God by faith as he speaks to you in His Word. This is our foundation for going where we are sent, staying where we are put and doing what we are asked. I pray we will be a church of the Word.