Month: February 2020

When I have a spare moment, I enjoy playing Words With Friends. This modern day electronic version of Scrabble helps keep my brain sharp as I’m challenged to put letters together to not only form a word, but a high scoring word.

The app I use even has a way of testing the strength of the word. It helps me know if there is a higher scoring word out there and I can do better.

The words I put together in Words With Friends are merely for a game, but beyond the game, we know words have so much more meaning, power and impact.

“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it until it begins to shine.” Emily Dickinson

Well crafted words are powerful enough to lift up or tear down. They can bring people together or tear them apart. They can incite emotion and action. They can put skin on commitments of the heart, like marriage vows.

Well crafted words are one thing, but my friends, we have something even more powerful. We have the Living Words of God.

In Acts, chapter 7, Stephen is speaking to the Sanhedrin. While giving them quite a good overview of the Old Testament, and highlighting some of the major events and people, he brings up Moses.

As Stephen is recounting Moses’ story, he states, “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us. But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.” (Acts 7:37-39, emphasis mine)

The idea behind “living words,” or “oracles” here is that of commands or laws of  the Living God.

Barnes notes that “living” or “lively” words here “…stands in opposition to what is dead, or useless, and means what is vigorous, efficacious; and in this place it means that the commands were of such a nature, and given in such circumstances, as to secure attention; to produce obedience; to excite them to act for God – in opposition to laws which would fall powerless, and produce no effect.”

Whew! That was a really, packed-with-lots-of-good-stuff sentence. I want to break it down a bit. Let’s start with the notion that the living words God gave to Moses were “…in opposition to what is dead, or useless…”.

Have you ever felt like someone’s words were dead or useless? Maybe they were “all talk” and no action. Maybe they made promises that they never kept. Maybe they just spewed a whole lot of pointless information. What we see here is such a stark contrast to that idea. God’s living words were so far from that.

In fact, they were just the opposite. They were meant to be “vigorous,” and “efficacious.” That has a healthy, movement kind of feel to it, doesn’t it? The words were to, “secure attention; to produce obedience; to excite them to act for God.”

God wanted the Israelites to be prompted by His living words to live for Him in obedience, in action. Unfortunately they refused to obey and rejected Him (Acts 7:39). In his speech, Stephen told his hearers they were just like their ancestors. “You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:51)

Friends, we have the opportunity, and beautiful duty to submit to the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to be “stiff necked people” who disobey and reject the living words of God. Instead, let’s embrace them, hide them in our hearts and faithfully act on them.

We also have the power to use the words God has given us to share His Truth and encourage others. Do you know someone who is downcast, someone who is weary?

Slightly warm, freshly baked, thickly sliced and slathered with butter–that’s my kind of bread. Oh how I love bread. I really do. There is just something so incredibly satisfying about smelling the aroma of it baking and then savoring every bite.

Bread. Whether it’s Naan bread from India, Tortillas from Latin America, or sliced whole wheat in the U.S., bread is a common food around the world. Because of its common nature and use, it makes a globally recognizable analogy.

Jesus, in His great wisdom, used the concept of bread to explain some very important Biblical truths. Contextually, this takes place *after* Jesus feeds the 5,000. Let’s take a look at His words in John, chapter 6 when people are asking what they must do to do the works God requires.

“Jesus Answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’ So they asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.'” (John 6:28-34) Let’s stop there for just a moment and take note of what’s happening. The people are asking for a sign, though they *just* saw one at the feeding of the 5,000. They still do not believe. And yet, they want the bread, always. It sounds much like the woman at the well, in John 4, who wanted the living water, doesn’t it?

Jesus has moved on from physical bread, like what he fed the multitude, to explaining that the Father gives the “true bread” from heaven. This is the kind of bread that gives life.

Let’s keep reading. “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.'” (John 6:35-36)

Now, if the people would believe, there is such a great reward. Let’s pick it up in verse 47, “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:47-51, emphasis mine).

Manna has been referenced a couple of times in this chapter and is used as a comparison to the bread, however there are a couple of important distinctions between the two.

Manna was lifeless and it had to be gathered to be eaten. It was only good for the day. Essentially, it was only useful to provide for one day’s worth of hunger. However, the bread that Jesus is talking about, when eaten (in other words, believed), is not just good for a day’s worth of hunger, but is enough to take care of one eternally.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:57-58, emphasis mine). If you haven’t seen my post on the Living God, you can check it out here.

Isn’t that incredible?

The manna sent from heaven was a sign of God’s daily sustenance for His people. Jesus, sent from heaven, was a sign of God’s eternal sustenance for His people.

We have a Living Father who sent Living Bread that we might eat of it and spend eternity in His presence.

Friends, the next time you take a bite of bread, whether it’s a scrumptious cinnamon role or a gluten free bun, be reminded of, be grateful for, and be radiant for, the Living Bread who came from heaven for us.

Let us go be radiant this week.

You know I love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

It’s the middle of winter in the Midwest. The tall, dark, barren trees seem utterly lifeless. It’s not hard to assume they are dead because it has been so long since we’ve seen their life-giving green leaves. The snowy, overcast days, add to the overall gloom.

When winters begin to feel long (can you tell this winter is starting to feel long for me?), I think of the joy, beauty and hopefulness of spring. There is really nothing like seeing the tiny buds begin to form on the trees. One is reminded that the leaves and flowers are soon to follow. Bright color and flourishing foliage will indeed return to the outside. Everything will be living again.

“Living” is a word that has caught my eye in Scripture over the last month or so. A couple of passages I was familiar with–ones that speak of “living water” and a “living sacrifice.”  But as I began digging into the Word, I found quite a few more:  living hope, living stone, living way, just to name a few.

There were so many that I thought I might just do a little series on them. In this post, I’m going to focus on our LIVING GOD.

If you look at Deuteronomy 5:26, Joshua 3:10, Psalm 42:2 (and many others), you will find the phrase, “the living God.”

Time and time again in Scripture, we are reminded that the God who created the universe, the God who sent His Son to die for our sins, the God who knows every hair on our heads, is living.

We don’t serve a statue or some created, lifeless object. We know, love and serve a *living* God.

Why do you think it’s so vital to know and understand that our God is a living God?

What would our faith be like if the god we served was a large chunk of carved stone? What would our prayers be like if they were directed toward some, created image of gold? How would we get through the storms of life if our god was just an inanimate object that stared back at us blankly when we cried out to him?

Worshiping that kind of god would be like living in an unending winter.

In contrast, our God is described by one commentator as a God “…who lives in and of himself, and is the author and giver of life to all his creatures, whereby he is distinguished from and is opposed unto the lifeless deities of the Gentiles…”

Worshiping that kind of God is like living in an unending spring. It is truly life-giving.

“For in him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28), emphasis mine.

Listen to the deep desire of the Psalmist, “My soul years, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Psalm 84:2

Where there is life, there is hope. There is communion. There is relationship.

Listen to the longing for relationship in this Psalm, “My souls thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:2)

This same God, spoken of in Psalms, is the One who changed King Darius’ life forever. In Daniel, chapter 6, we read how Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den…and lived. When the king realized that Daniel’s God had saved him, this is how he responded, “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. ‘For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end…'” Emphasis mine.

Doesn’t the eternality of God instill in us an unwavering confidence and a sure hope?

As we take time to meditate on the truth that our God is the living God, may our souls thirst for Him. May our hearts and flesh cry out for Him.

In view of our living God, let us go be radiant this week.