Springtime in Georgia is beautiful, with many flowering bushes, large and small. I was there the middle of April and watched the buds on my hostess’ rhododendron bush open into full bloom. It reminded me of the large rhododendron in the yard of my former home in West Virginia. Gorgeous.
While I was in Georgia representing Mustard Seeds and Mountains at a missions conference, I was able to attend three book signing parties for my book, Brokenness to Beauty, put on for me by long-time friends. I so appreciate each of these host ladies! I got to visit with them, share about the ministry of Mustard Seeds and Mountains with the guests, and then had readings from and discussion about my book, Brokenness to Beauty. One passage we read was from Chapter 5—The Scriptures, Our Life:
“I remember well my daily struggles with fear, pain, and uncertainty in the days of cancer treatment, crying many tears as I talked to God. Though Randy was able to be with me for a few months at the beginning of my treatment, most of that year and a half he was back in West Virginia working while I stayed in California. Every day I turned to the Bible. I poured out my heart to God in prayer as I read his Word.
I once wrote on my blog:
The Scriptures, God’s words to us, sustain me daily. They are our life. They bring the only light to this dark path.
At the end of his wilderness journey, Moses knew he was about to die. He had faithfully obeyed the words of the Lord. He led the Israelites out of Egypt, bore up under the crushing load of their complaining and rebellion against God (and himself), and gave them the law of God, the first five books of the Bible.
Before he turned over the reins of leadership to Joshua, Moses sang a scathing song of warning and chastisement before giving the Israelites one last charge. He said:
Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life (Deuteronomy 32:46–47).
These words about the Bible are for me as much as for the Israelites of thousands of years ago. The Scriptures are not idle words for me; they are my life. I take that statement to heart.”
God has given us his words. Do we grasp the significance of that? I am convinced, even from my own life, that we do not understand as we ought what it means to have God’s words. If we did our lives would be different!
His words are meant to transform us. That only happens when we take them in (usually through reading and studying them), understand them to some degree, put them into practice, and by so doing change our thoughts, words, behaviors and lifestyles.
As I write this blog post on my laptop in my home in Bakersfield, CA, I marvel at the patient work of God in my life, even though I’ve been slow to learn the value and importance of his words.
The words of God to the Israelites are for me, and for you, today:
Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. (Deuteronomy 32:46–47, emphasis mine)
Will we take seriously, to our very hearts, the words of warning from the Word of God given to us through Moses and the other writers of the Scriptures?
Will we faithfully teach our children to carefully obey the Word of God, setting the example for them to follow our steps of faith and obedience?
Will we grasp the truth that the Word of God is our very life, not to be taken lightly or pushed aside, following the noise of the culture around us?
Will we live in the truth that we do have all the time we need for spending in God’s Word (rather than the lie that “I don’t have time”)?
Will we strive, as the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 4 verse 11, to enter into God’s rest through diligently obeying his revealed word?
It’s all a matter of the Will.
No more excuses.
May we will to do his Will. God help us.
And he will.
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed … work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13, NASB.)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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