What a glorious, powerful, simple, sobering, overwhelming truth: God works by His word!! We see this over and over again in the book of Acts, as our risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ gathers, shepherds, and multiplies His flock – all by His word, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
AMAZINGLY, this is God’s single, permanent strategy for world missions! He fulfills His mission to redeem a people for Himself by the work of His word, in and through His people. He uses the proclamation of His word to miraculously create new life (1 Pet. 1:22-25), and to powerfully feed/shape new life (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Oh how wise and glorious He is, and how authoritative, sufficient, sweet, and desirable is His word (Psalm 19)!
Beloved, this being so, how passionately, joyously, and expectantly ought we to always, “…like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grown up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”? (1 Pet. 2:2-3)
Many Bible reading plans abound, but the most fundamental issue is: do we hunger for God’s word like newborn infants? Are we so tenaciously zeroed in on the single source of nourishment, confident that God feeds only through His word, that we gladly bypass anything that would hinder our delight in His life-giving truth? We’re all in different situations, and we face different pressures on our time, but we always seem to do what is necessary to feed our physical bodies (and many other things besides, my Facebook friends 🙂 ). How much more should we do whatever is necessary to feed our souls with the living, transforming word of God!
I look forward to being with you this coming Lord’s Day, as we share again in the feast of God’s word He has for us!!
Because Christ lives, and is returning,
Greg