A Living Word

I saw this on Facebook this morning and began to think about the question.  We seem to be okay with cultural and familiar expressions of faith, but not with individual and unfamiliar ones.  When someone does the unexpected, it makes us squirm because we don't know what to do ourselves.  We are embarrassed by a public acknowledgment of God----we ourselves don't have the inner freedom to do the same, so we don't want anyone else to do it either.

We are enchanted when a man declares his love for his girlfriend in a filled stadium, posting his "Will you marry me?" on an electronic billboard----but less enchanted when Tim Tebow bows his head to acknowledge his God.  Nor do we want our students at graduation to give thanks to God in a public way for His strength and support -- because someone in the audience might not feel the same way.

There was a time when I too would not tell anyone how I felt about Jesus.  I didn't want to "impose my beliefs" on them, or turn them off----I wanted to be liked; I did not want to be thought of as a fanatic.
Now, however, as I approach my own death, I have become a fanatic!  I no longer care about the respect of other people; I only want them to know how wonderful, exciting, adventurous, satisfying, fulfilling, joyous it is to know the living God, Who is always and everywhere a part of our lives, Who longs to do good to us and for us, Who longs to spread His blessings throughout the earth through our words, our actions, our acknowledgment of His Name.

Under His banner is truth, protection, wisdom, love, joy, peace, mutual respect, patient endurance, hope, light, and life.  Without Him, the Light of Life, is deception, foolishness, hatred, "human nature," darkness, and death.  Why-would-I-not-be-a-fanatic, knowing / experiencing the living God in my life? 

I want to say to everyone I meet and know, "Come, eat and be filled with good things!"  "Taste for yourself and know for yourself that God is the One for Whom we were made!"  Jeremiah has the Lord saying, "Is not my word like fire....and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (23:29)

Before the arrival of the Holy Spirit in one's life, the word of God -- i.e.Scripture--- is "nice," "beautiful," "inspirational"----but it is not a "fire" and a "hammer."  When the Holy Spirit comes, everything changes---we want to run, not walk, with the word of God.  Granted, the Bible has been used throughout history and even today as a weapon to suppress others (slavery, for example) and as a "hammer" that beats them down with guilt.   But the section of Jeremiah that contains these words is God's anger against "false prophets" who "have not stood in the council of the Lord to "see or to hear his word, to listen and hear his word (23:19).  Instead, they "borrow words from one another" and say to the people, "Thus says the Lord...." 

That is the difference between the word as written --- the "nice," and "beautiful" word---and that spoken by God in a man's heart.  In fact, in the Greek, there is a distinction between the two:  Logos is the written word; Rhema is the spoken.  One we can read; the other is heard, as a living word.  That is why God sent prophets to Israel---so they could hear the living word, spoken in this situation, in this time, to this generation.  That is why God sent His Son and said, "LISTEN to Him." 

It is one thing to read the Scripture; it is another to have the Spirit of God speaking it to you.  I would hope that the day would come in America when we can respect not only cultural and formalized expressions of faith, but also realize that God speaks in different ways and different times in our hearts.  Could we all not be "listeners," not to all and every prophet that comes along, but to the One Who longs to whisper His word in our hearts?