The
last three Sundays before the season of Advent are sometimes called "Kingdom
Sundays". They focus on King Jesus, His reign, His Word and His ways. This
Sunday there is a focus on His Word. The collect appointed for the days reads
like this:
Blessed Lord, Who caused all
holy Scriptures to be written for
our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark,
learn,
and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and
ever
hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which You have
given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns
with
You and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
To read is one thing. We can
forget what we have read if we just read in a cursory manner, like in the doctor's office. However if we
mark, really pay attention to what we read with a mind to remember, we retain
more.
If the intent is to learn,
really learn, then the focus is ramped up another notch because there is an
intent to utilize the information we are reading. If I want to learn how to make
a quilt, how to play an instrument or maybe how to build a house, I will read
the instructional material much more closely than if I'm just reading till
the nurse calls me back into the doctor's examination
room.
If we are wanting to master
a thing, we read, re-read, make notes and ask questions of those who are already
to some degree mastering more than we have. We begin to eat, drink and sleep the
material so that it becomes part of us. Our whole perspective begins to change,
being shaped by the subject we have devoted ourselves to. It's at this point
that we find that having read, marked, learned we have inwardly digested the
information/knowledge and it has become part of us. You know...you are what you
eat.
Reading God's Word for some
is like chewing gum. You get some flavor and a workout for your jaws, but no
real benefit other than fresher breath for a few moments. There is no
nutritional value.
Others may just focus
on their favorite passages maybe not even noticing the context of those
passages. That's kind of only eating "sweets". Now that has more benefit than
gum, but if that is your steady diet, you will not remain healthy for long. You
need your veggies, grains and proteins as well.
When we submit our lives to
the full counsel of God's Word we will find places that make us uncomfortable
and for good reason! We need the Holy Spirit to work out in our lives the
salvation God has given us in Jesus Christ. We will be convicted and disciplined
by the Word of God...even "taken to the woodshed" at times...believe me, I've
been there many times over the past 42 years of following Jesus.
In Hebrews 12:5-12 the
author clearly states that all true children of God will be disciplined
for their own good, so they may share in His holiness. That
discipline/correction/training can be painful. We have to face the fact that
there are places in our lives that we are not as free as we thought. Unhelpful
habits can still enslave us. You know the "Oh...that's just the way I am..."
kind of excuses we give.
Being "born-again" does not
mean "perfected". It does mean, however, that we have a new spiritual DNA, a new
heredity and a new nature. Like new-born children we have to grow up, mature. As
new creations coming out of death into life, we need to un-learn a lot, to have
our minds renewed to see things from a radically new perspective: God's
perspective.
We are not merely meant to
read about God's Holiness, we are meant to share in it, to be changed in an
ongoing way to become more alive, more real, more whole...more like Jesus. It's
when we so digest Jesus' Words that we begin to do what it says in faith and
obedience...when we make our "home" in God's Word and His Word finds a home in
us that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free...no longer
slaves!
It is the written will of
God that in the life of any follower of Jesus Christ, God's Word is to become
"home" to us; that defining reference as to what makes for life and the arbiter
of any and all decisions we made need to make in living. When that process is an
ongoing and ever increasing, our vision of life will be changed by the
application of truth and that the truth will become assimilated and becomes
life and breath to us. We ill begin to look like "what we
eat."
The freedom that comes
from this will empower you to live fearlessly and rigorously. It will make no
difference if people persecute you or not. You will be able to embody the Love
of Jesus to them because as he lives in you He will live through
you.
Feed your life! Read, mark
and inwardly digest God's Holy Word so that you may embrace (like a lover) and
ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life God has given you in our Savior Jesus Christ.
