The Word of God

Recently, I have had the privilege of ministering to several international students. In just a matter of weeks, I have learned a lot about culture and even learned a few foreign words. It is cool to think about what sort of impact you can have on the rest of the world while you are in college. I have become good friends with individuals from Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam (all of which are countries where the spread of the Gospel is restricted). There are also students here from Tunisia, Morocco, Israel, and many other restricted nations. What an opportunity exists on the campuses here in America!

While I could write a whole post about the global impact college students could have, I am going to go a different route. In two of my recent conversations, I was able to provide the individual with a Bible, to which they both excitedly accepted. One has even carried it around with her, including into WalMart, where she held it close to her chest the whole time. What a beautiful sight it was to see someone to excited to have a copy of the Bible!

There was one question that that girl asked me that weekend that stood out above everything else. She asked, "How come so many Christians have never read the whole Bible? If I believed it were the word of God, I would read it over and over." Wow! Are you one of those Christians? How much value do you place on the Word of God? She continued by telling me that she thought every Christian should learn Hebrew and Greek so that they could properly understand the context and meaning of everything the original authors were trying to say. If you didn't fall into the previous category, you probably fall into this one. How much do you cherish the Word of God?

I have also recently been studying systematic theology. By what I believe to be divine providence, I just finished up the section on the sufficiency of scripture. Wayne Grudem defines that like this: "The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that IT NOW CONTAINS EVERYTHING WE NEED GOD TO TELL US for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly."

Have you ever thought about what an incredible thing we have at our fingertips? We have the words of our almighty Creator! We have words that are "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16)! We have words that are the "power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16)! We have a Book that allows us to personally know our Savior!

What is your excuse? So many people get on these "Read the Bible in 365 Days" kind of plans and never make it past February. Others simply just rely on others to share God's word with them. They think Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights are enough to sustain them. What if I asked you to charge your cell phone only one day a week and see how long it lasted? Why would you starve yourself of life-giving truth? What else in this world really matters?

What if one day you got to Heaven and ran into Obadiah and he said, "Hey, what did you think of my book?" What would you respond? Do you even know that much about Obadiah? How much of God's word do you really even know?

There are days when I beat myself up over the fact that I neglect Scripture. What a powerful thing it truly is! How Christians neglect it on a regular basis, I do not know. This world is so dark and evil, walking through it without a Sword seems ridiculous. It seems like suicide!

I want to challenge you to dive into His word this week. Meditate on His law day and night. Start with Psalm 1 and decide which person you want to be. Embrace the fact that you can freely read the Bible without worrying about martyrdom. Don't be the person who gets to Heaven and is surprised by what you see or Who you meet. Know your Creator before you get there and start falling in love with your Savior today!

I want to close with one final statistic that I found in CJ Mahaney's book, "Humility: True Greatness":
"The average American commutes 25 minutes two and from work. This adds up to 50 minutes a day. If we listened to an audio Bible during this time, we would finish the Bible in only 3 months."

Again, what is your excuse?