WEDNESDAY 26th
Reading – Psalm 19:7-11
NIV Hebrews 4:12 – ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’
ESV Hebrews 4:12 – ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’
At this moment as I am preparing this devotion, I am sat in what is going to be my office / study, but, as yet I can hardly move because it is yet to be sorted. I am awaiting delivery of some bookshelves, so about one third of the floor space is covered with boxes yet to be opened, one third with almost usable space. The other third is covered with some of the books that I have already unpacked but stacked in piles about 2ft 6in high ready for me to sort in order into the bookshelves. The garage is another story, boxes etc. yet to be unpacked and sorted and deciding where to put.
Moving has been a stressful time, yet at the same time it has been an exciting time, and I in particular was looking forward to unpacking and having all my books again, being able to have them and refer to them.
The Bible is a collection of books, 66 in total, and for some the Bible is a book that is packed away and forgotten about, for others it is a book that is unpacked but just lying around getting covered in dust or up on a bookshelf, never moved or opened, and for others it is a book that is either opened and looked at once in a blue moon, while for others it is a book that is considered to be important enough to be looked at and read on a regular basis. See for some it is just another book, for others it is The Book, the most important book, because it is the Living and Powerful Word of God.
As I have already said, I have been excited about having my books again, they are my favourite and most valued possessions, and I wonder what value we place upon the Book of Books, the Word of God, does it list among our most valued possessions, even more, does it list as our most valued possession? Those of us who are older can remember the period of Communism in Eastern Europe, where the Bible was a banned book (Still is in some other parts of the World) and lots of effort was made to smuggle Bibles into these countries, often leading to imprisonment if caught. I can remember subscribing to an organisation (I can’t remember the name) who sent you copies of the books of the Bible printed on very thin paper and every now and again you would post one of these to an address in the USSR to get some of the Scripture into the homes of underground believers. Today we can have the Bible in so many forms, it can be on a CD, DVD or in MP3 form with someone reading it to us, we can have it on our electrical items such as I-pad or smart phone, but I personally think there is nothing better than actually holding a printed copy, a physical copy to be able to read the Word of God. How much do we value the Word of God, how often do we take it off the shelf to read? Over the next few weeks, my devotions are going to be a little like what I have been doing recently – unpacking! I will unpack something from every book of the Bible, starting from Genesis and slowly working through to Revelation. If things return to normal before I have finished then I will continue it in some form or another, maybe not daily but weekly till we have completed the Bible.
Tomorrow we will look at some verses that help us to understand the importance of the Word of God before we commence with Genesis.