Seeing Christ in the Word
We sent this sermon out 11/12/2004.Body of Christ and those still seeking,
Here is another sermon Todd has written, and I thought I might send it out. I thank God from the deepest parts of my being for the God-centered Husband I have who "loves me as Christ loved the church and gives himself up for me that he might sanctify me, having cleansed me by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present me to Christ without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that I might be holy and without blemish. " (Ephesians 5:26-27). My prayer is that of Jesus: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 11:15)
In Christ,
Erin
"See Christ, see His Word. Pray, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law," like the Psalmist of Psalm 119. The Word of God lights up the blackness of our hearts. It cleans the muck away. Behold Christ through His Word and accept no substitutes manufactured by factories of deceitful hearts, smothered with the soot of smokestacks.
One sermon a week isn't enough to feed a hungry soul. If you feel full for a week or even over-fed after your pastor's sermon, any pastor's sermon, check your stomach for the meconium of the world. Be renewed and purged by munching on the tract-refreshing sweet, sweet Word of God, "sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb." Psa. 19:10
Let your pastor teach you to meditate and reflect on the scriptures the way he does. If you haven't learned yet, and your pastor doesn't show you what the scripture means and by example teach you to reflect on it and be changed, get a new one.
The Bible is not really debatable. There are mysteries in the Word beyond our comprehension but most of it is clearer than evil minds are willing to admit. There's no getting around that Jesus spoke most often in His parables about the Lordship of Himself, the savior. He came not to be served but to serve and/but He is now also in Heaven to be the Lord of the saved, the served. His Kingdom is invisible and is populated by bondservants in submission to Him. Salvation is submission to the Lord who saves. The Bible is perfectly clear. Its words abide in the saved. (John 8:31)
I think people are generally extremely caught up in their own truths, their own views of the world. I don't know about you but I've been working to dismantle my mind's own views for a long time and be reconstructed in line with the Bible in every way. If you've heard of terms like 'postmodernism', 'moral relativism', or maybe, 'existentialism', you're probably aware of this so-called intellectual atmosphere espousing new truths or personal truths that we see and make up ourselves. The lines of right and wrong are where you draw them, they say. The Bible is just one more system or symbol of authority to them that has to be pushed out of the way, discredited, and ignored, in order for each individual's own truth to be valid. Apart from knowing God, we want to be our own gods.
I see people, even Christians, afraid to open the Bible. Maybe they come from church backgrounds where people really didn't love Jesus but used the church as another institution to foster the loving of themselves. I have friends who have grown up in churches that worship their own structure, system, and authority instead of God. It's destructive to their abilities, even regenerated, to trust the Bible when so many people they've trusted have gotten it all wrong.
When the most publicized voices in our country are fascinated with discovering new ways to do things, new ways to help ourselves, better ways to better our bodies, lives and so on, it makes it hard for us to see that the Bible, "that old and dusty book," is the most alive, most active, most changing, most real collection of paragraphs and phrases the universe has ever known. When everything of the world is saying God is not the solution, the Bible says, "Yes, He is," and, "Yes, I AM."
The Bible is meant to show us God, to glorify God, to manifest the most essential substance and most dire need of every human being, that is reconciliation to God and the removal of His wrath against us through faith. "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."(Romans 10:17) Faith brings forgiveness and life beyond this mortal life, by the Holy Spirit and with the one who died, making us God's objects of mercy rather than His objects of wrath.
God writes to give us to Himself. "And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."(2 Cor. 3:3) When Christ died, He wrote on the hearts of those of whom all sins were atoned. If not all of you is God's, repent, and be given to Him by being given to the reading and eating of the Word. Read and focus prayer on what the Word has said. Eating without digestion benefits the body nil. I liken reading without prayerful thought to binging and then purging.
Write after you read, as God has written in the Bible, as I am writing here, and use the mind He has given you to process and comprehend. Biblical revelation is not something to be spooked about. God intends to help us comprehend what our evil flesh considers incomprehensible through the workful submission of our minds. His word is like a helpful hammer. Let your mind be like an anvil. In the fire of the Word, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word, will be forged. Then, sharper than any double-edged sword, let it be driven into your heart. Be judged, in judgment, for condemnation of your sin, and for sight to see and life to live in abundance.(Jer. 23:29, Eph. 6:17, Heb. 4:12, John 9:39, John 10:10) In other words, think on what the Word says, and pray for help, and read some more. Rejoice how it tells you to rejoice. Change how it tells you to change. Love how it tells you to love. See Christ and repent. Look for help in the written works of those whom God has given expression with gifts of wisdom and knowledge. Then write something yourself to someone you love, first of all God. I am not an expert in reading or in writing or in wisdom. Think. Write what you know. And ask God to correct you according to His Word.
Let us all pray for the gently excruciating judgment of the Word in our lives, recognizing all Godly discipline as the extension of God's grace, and continually request the abolition of our pride in regard to how we view the authority of His Word.
Trusting Him,
Todd Leroy"
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