The Word of Grace

Our pastor encouraged us this morning to make use of the Word of God. He has so richly provided for us, that we might live in a time and place where the Bible is so abundant. Each member of my family has their own Bible, and several of us own more than one copy. But does this proliferation of Bibles lead us to spend more time in the Word?

The pastor challenged us that “To whom much is given, much will be required”. We have been given full access to God’s Holy Word. Our Sunday sermons are preached in our own language. Our Bibles can be displayed openly on the coffee table where we can be constantly reminded to “take up and read”.

Early in my Christian life I looked at my Bible in one of two ways. Sometimes I felt that reading it was a duty, something to be checked off my Christian growth “to do” list. I was faithful to read and the Lord used it, but my heart was not always warm to the task. I was too legalistic.

Other times I felt it was one option among many. I could read it (or something else) or watch TV or call a friend…what did I feel like doing? I was too liberal.

Neither attitude is appropriate for the Christian. Our Bible reading should be both regular and joyful, of course! But it must be much more. We must cultivate the attitude that “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

Are you worried? Look to His Word and find peace for your soul. Do you lack wisdom? It is there. Are you suffering? Open its pages and find comfort. Are you just going about your normal day? Enjoy His fellowship.

I was blessed last week in my reading of Missionary Patriarch: The True Story of John G. Paton.

In writing about the great zeal the converted Natives had for God’s Word, Paton said:

“These poor Aneityumese, having glimpses of this Word of God, determined to have a Holy Bible in their own mother tongue, wherein before no book or page ever had been written in the history of their race. The consecrated brain and hand of their Missionaries kept toiling day and night in translating the book of God; and the willing hands and feet of the Natives kept toiling through fifteen long but unwearying years, planting and preparing arrowroot to pay the 1,200 pounds required to be laid out in the printing and publishing of the book.

Year after year the arrowroot, too sacred to be used for their daily food, was set apart as the Lord’s portion; the Missionaries sent it to Australia and Scotland, where it was sold by private friends, and the whole proceeds consecrated to this purpose.

On the completion of the great undertaking by the Bible Society, it was found that the Natives had earned so much as to pay every penny of the outlay; and their first Bibles went out to them, purchased with the consecrated toils of fifteen years!

Let those who lightly esteem their Bibles think on those things…the labor and proceeds of fifteen years for the Bible entire did not appear to these poor converted Savages too much to pay for that Word of God, which had sent to them the Missionaries, which had revealed to them the grace of God in Christ, and which had opened their eyes to the wonders and glories of redeeming love! They had felt, and we had observed, that in all lands and amongst all branches of the human family, the Holy Bible is, wheresoever received and obeyed, the power of God unto salvation (p. 77-78).

Please consider joining me in reading through the Bible this year!

Comments

  1. These are excellent thoughts… and inspires me to go read my Bible!!

    Thank you!

    God bless-
    Amanda

Speak Your Mind

*