The Living Word of God
One of the biggest misconceptions about the Bible is that it’s just another book.
In fact, many Christians treat Scripture as if it’s just a collection of ancient letters and books that inform us about God and religious matters.
While the Bible is certainly a collection of ancient documents, it is also much more than that. It is the very word of God. The Bible is inspired by God, which means He spoke through humans to create these letters and books.
More than that though, God’s Word is living and active. The Holy Spirit uses the Bible to speak to us even today. This is what makes Scripture distinct from any other book.
James tells us in James 1:22-24 that the power of Scripture doesn’t just come by hearing it, but by living it out.
Scripture has the power to radically change the way we live, but we must take the effort to first read it, and then do what it says.
James says that anyone who reads Scripture and doesn’t follow God’s way is only deceiving themselves. We think we are following God simply by reading His Word, but God desires that we live out the truths of Scripture in our own life.
This is what it means to follow God’s way rather than our own.
Take a moment to consider a few ways you can begin to live out the truths in Scripture. Spend some time in prayer asking God to reveal to you an area of your life to transform by His Word. And then, resolve to not just hear God’s Word, but to do what He says as you follow after Him.
I just started to read “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Chuck Smith. The introduction by Raul Ries has brought back my journey to accepting Christ.
I was a preteen, I remember wanting to read “Joni” by Joni Erickson (now Tada) and the “Cross and the Switchblade” by David Wilkerson. This sparked something in me but I wasn’t sure. Then I became friends with teen a little older than me who introduced me to the Bible. But it would be years later that I made my impassioned plead to the Lord only to backslide a few years later. Then another friend took me to Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia and it was there that I rededicated my life to the Lord. And is there that the Lord has been dealing with my sin through grace until this day. I am a work in progress because I have things that come to light from my past that may hold me from things the Lord has for me.
I am looking forward to reading this book just by reading a short part of the introduction. It may inspire me to write about my own ...