WORD!

Even though the picture here comes from a series my former pastor, Bruce Young at First Baptist Downtown Boise, taught, this thought-stream began last Sunday with my current pastor Randy Ponder from Rock Harbor Christian Fellowship in Morro Bay.  The first message, on January 8^th, from his series “Words That Changed the World”, was called “Pete, Your Feet Stink”.  This past Sunday it was “Man Needs More Than Carbs”.  Now you may be more comfortable with the KJV’s “… man shall not live by bread alone.”  But for me, putting it into more current language makes the meaning somehow more personal.  If we (I) were as involved in discovering what God said, and what it means, as we are in our (my) fixation on food, we’d (I’d) be a lot more involved getting onboard God’s Salvation Express.  And please don’t claim you aren’t focused on food.  Most of us (I) eat too much.  Some eat too little.  But it does encompass our lives.  We plan for, we schedule for, we budget for, we look forward to, and we enjoy eating.  It may be why God chose this particular metaphor to get His message through.  If you haven’t already, I invite you to do a word study on “bread” as it’s used in the scriptures.  A good resource to begin with is BibleGateway.com. 

The first thing that struck me while Randy was talking on Sunday, other than his “Can I Get an Amen?” t-shirt, was the emphasis on “…every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew4:4)  Words as we understand them are first collections of auditory signals which we have been taught to associate with certain meanings.  Then we learned these sounds have visible signals which can be written by hand or machine on paper or electronically encoded as bits in a computer or other device.  I personally have difficulty with the concept of inky squiggles or bits (in bytes) “proceeding” from the mouth of God.  Let me make it very clear here that I absolutely believe in the inerrancy (as in no mistakes) of what God’s Spirit caused men to have committed to writing, that is, it’s inspired.  God’s Spirit, by definition, cannot make mistakes.  But translators can.  So can scribes – in which I include those who repeat words orally, write them on paper or other written medium, print them as books, or enter them into a computer.  So also can humans who decide which writings ought to be included with those considered to be inspired.  For me it comes down to this:  It’s God’s Word when He speaks it.  When Satan was tempting Jesus in Matthew4:1-11, the enemy (mis)quoted scripture.  Jesus responded to each temptation by also quoting from scripture.  It appears to me plain on its face that those words proceeding from the mouth of Satan were not God’s words nor were they God’s Word.

So what difference does all this make?  The writer of the book we call Hebrews in the New Testament said, “…without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews11:6)  In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul wrote, “…so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God…” (Romans10:17)  I like the way the Message paraphrase shakes up my complacency with this: “Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ's Word is preached, there's nothing to listen to.”  Why are the words “hearing” and “listen” used, and not “reading” or “study”?  At least partly it’s because people in the first century when these were written didn’t always have their own copy of the holy writings.  In fact they seldom did.  They would get it audibly.

The writer of Hebrews also tells us the word of God is alive and powerful. (Hebrews4:12)  Jesus is the living embodiment of the Word of God. (John1:1,14)  So we know the word (Word) of God is alive and also unchanging. (Hebrews13:8)  Not to beat a dead horse (whatever does that mean?), but paper and ink are dead, as are bits and bytes.  Nonetheless, I can print this out as shapes of ink on paper, and as I type (awkwardly) on my laptop I create links to electronic machines where these words reside as bits and bytes.  Through our mechanical, limited, often-mistaken means of earthly communication we can discern by God’s living Spirit within us His true, eternal, life-giving, and life-changing words about His Word.

We are then left with the choice of what to do about it.  Faith is action.  It is living as if what God said (is saying) is actually true.  If we choose not to listen, we won’t have a clue as to how to act.  If we choose not to act, we miss out on all that God has promised for those who trust Him.  And note that the actions are not based on somebody’s list of right and wrong.  I’ve said it often, and Randy repeated essentially the same this weekend: People who say “Don’t do that” and “Do do this” are just full of doo-doo.  What’s my scripture to back this up?  In Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, he talked about his efforts to achieve righteousness without faith in Christ.  Again, I like the Message paraphrase, ‘though I learned it originally in the KJV (Philippians3:3-9):

We couldn't carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

If you go to the link for this passage above, you’ll note that only the folks who put together The Message and the guys King James brought together while Shakespeare was alive had the courage to use the word “dung”.  In the early 1600’s this was a word in common usage which everyone understood.  It meant animal refuse, excrement, and was used in derogatory slang much as the “s” word is used today.  And it’s not necessary to use that word here as long as we understand the ultra-low esteem in which Paul held his efforts at being good without faith in Jesus Christ.

You know, in the western world you really have no excuse.  The words God has given to man, so that we may know Him and fully become who He intends for us to be, are everywhere.  They are the basis of pleasing Him, but it takes constant awareness of, and desire to be in, His presence.  Jesus died so that you could enter a chat room with God the Father of all, who longs for your company.  So get with it.

And in closing, I offer you the words of that great theologian Spock son of Sarek from the planet Vulcan who combined Exodus20:12 and Deuteronomy5:29 and said “Live long and prosper!”