I Just Love The Word Of God

“But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to
the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:4

When I was 5 years old, my grandfather took me on Saturday Mornings to a Christian Bookstore owned by a man named Jay Green.  Jay Green, Sr. (1918 – May 20, 2008) was an ordained minister, Bible translator, publisher, and businessman.Green was born in Ennis, Kentucky. He earned degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, Toronto Baptist Seminary, and Covenant Theological Seminary. The main reason my grandfather took me to Jay’s bookstore was to learn how to read the bible that Jay produced for kids.

Knowing about the Bible as literature is a crucial part of what it means to be a literate person.

Jay’s motivation to produce an accessible, more easily understood translation of the Bible began when he tried to read the King James Version to his children and they asked, "Daddy, why don't you make a Bible that we can understand?" His first effort was The Children's King James Version, New Testament (1960). It was these same daughters that would sit with me on Saturday mornings and teach me to read through Jay’s first fully produced Children’s Bible.  He went on to produce a large number of translations of the Bible into English, some revised multiple times, including The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, in One-Volume. He once described himself as "the most experienced Bible translator now alive" (Paul 2003:99).  What an honor and privilege it was to have learned the books of the Bible and then read through it during those early years of my life.  My grandfather was a very wise man in getting me to read the bible for myself. It provided the foundation I needed to understand the Gospel and why I needed to be Born Again.

It's critical for church leadership to challenge believers to be in the Word of God, 

consistently growing in their knowledge of the Scriptures.

Later after receiving Christ as my Savior, my grandfather and I joined a baptist that I loved, led by Rev. Ed Miller, a graduate of Princeton, University.  At age 14 Pastor Miller asked me to join his discipleship group that he held on Saturday mornings. He invited 5 young men to come at 7am in the morning and meet with him.  As we began our study, we would take time to pray together and then study the word together for at least 4 hours. We went through the entire Bible together. What I didn’t know was that my pastor was one of the first Baptist leaders to have received “The Baptism In The Holy Spirit” during the early days of the Charismatic Movement.  In June 1970, I was water baptized and a year later I encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time and would also receive this same experience.  The most important thing this experience did for me was to fuel my love for God’s Word even more.  

During these early days of the Charismatic Movement, me like Rev. John Poole from Gospel Temple in Philadelphia, Rev. Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, and Malcolm Smith.  Malcolm Smith, born in London, England, became a pastor of a church in New York City where all that he was beginning to understand was put to the test of the broken lives that fill the streets of that city. It was during that time that he began  traveling through the as a teacher and leader of the emerging renewal of the Spirit throughout all denominations in the 60′s and 70′s. On Monday and Tuesday evenings he would come down by train and teach The Word Of God to our congregation.  His input into our lives was life transforming. Never once during these years did our spirit-filled worship replace our hunger for the Word Of God. It was our study of God’s Word that moved us into great moments of praise and worship. My pastor once said to us, If it’s not in the Word Of God, we don’t do that.  In other words, our expressions of worship, exercising of spiritual gifts, and ministering to others all had to have its foundation in the Word not in experiences or emotionalism.

Human beings are emotional creatures. We love or hate, feel happy or sad, angry or joyful. And yet christians sometimes struggle with integrating emotion into their spiritual lives and end up falling victim to dangerous tendencies when it comes to their emotions.

At age 16, a friend of mine asked me to join him in driving up to Coatesville, Pa. to attend a night time bible institute.  The Institute was founded by Rev. Dr. charles Strauser and focused on bible literacy. I attended this bible school for two years and was licensed as a Minister by them just as I became a youth pastor in a United Methodist Church in my home city.  Again, Dr. Strauser’s intensive Bible study challenged me to love God’s Word even more. During my time with him, God’s Word was confirmed with incredible movements of the Holy Spirit in the classroom which again were not based on worship or music.  God’s Word was the centerpiece of everything he taught. I guess the main reason for my emphasizing these foundational years for me is the fact that had it not been for God’s Word being front and center for me during the spiritual formation periods of my life I probably wouldn’t have the deep love and intimate relationship I have with the Lord today.  This leads me to my concern.

Hosea 4:6

“My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.”

Is it just me?  Or are you sensing the same thing?  There is a famine of God’s Word in the modern expressions of the church.  I have been listening, searching, and hungering to find anyone who is just teaching God’s Word.  The Church world express seems fixated on its music, light shows, creativity and motivational talks but rarely do I hear the solid teaching that grounds people in their faith.  The church seems to be more focused on it’s assets, cash and numbers than on doing what Jesus command us “make disciples.” Discipleship begins with introducing God’s Word, getting people to read and love God’s word and making it the centerpiece of their lives.  

When we examine the early church, we find in Acts chapter 6 that the Apostles found that their ministry was pulling them into differing directions other than what they should be attentive to - The Word Of God.  So they appointed others as deacons so that they could effectively do two things - PRAY and STUDY GOD’s Word. A few years ago, I was watching a Christian TV program where a young upcoming preacher was asking another well known preacher what the most important thing he needed to know about being in the ministry.  The famous preacher responded, “Get a good lighting director!” I was shocked. To hear someone give advice to someone that looked up to him that the show was more important than “prayer and the ministry of the Word” simply astounded me. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body …”  Each time the scriptures speak of our need to experience a renewal in our faith it always begins with people rediscovering the most important aspect of our faith -THE WORD OF GOD.  King Josiah called his nation back to God after he read the scriptures for himself (II Kings 22). Ezra reintroduced the Bible to Israel. (Ezra 7-10) Likewise, we need to turn off the light show, get rid of the dancing girls, turn up the lights and simply begin where we should have been all the time - in God’s Word. Why?

Psalm 119:11

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Jeremiah 31:33

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

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.

Hebrews 10:16

"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

Unfortunately in many respects, the contemporary church in America looks more like a large corporation than like anything described in the New Testament. Even church leaders sometimes bear a closer resemblance to CEOs and corporate executives than to humble, tender shepherds. Sadly, the good news — that a sinner can find forgiveness for sins before a holy God by placing his trust in and committing his whole life to Jesus Christ—is often eclipsed by “success”-oriented programs and an interest in the bottom line.vAs a result, many churches have become nothing more than entertainment centers, employing tactics that effectively draw people into the church, but are incapable of truly ministering to them once they come.

Hillsong's Worship Leader: Marty Sampson recently announced he's lost his way.

In recent days, several key leaders in both the pulpit and in worship have “fallen away” from their faith and people have wondered why.  It’s a pretty simple answer to a common problem in the modern contemporary church. Jesus used the term fall away in the Parable of the Sower when He taught of a seed sown on rocky places (Matthew 13:20-21, Mark 4:16-17, and Luke 8:13).  The plant sprouted up quickly in the shallow soil, but then withered because it had no root.  Jesus said the seed represents the Word of God (Luke 8:11), and ”Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.  They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” (Luke 8:13)  Without the Word Of God firmly planted in our hearts -all of us forget who we use to be.  James 1:22-25 says:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

 Let’s return The Church To A Foundation In The Scriptures

It’s Our Only Hope!