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The Power of Demonstration

Read: 2 Timothy 3:10–17 | Bible in a Year: Joshua 16–18; Luke 2:1–24

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All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

My attempts at fixing things around the house usually lead to paying someone else to undo the damage I caused while trying to fix the original problem. But recently I successfully repaired a home appliance by watching a YouTube video where a person demonstrated step by step how to do it.

Paul was a powerful example to his young protégé Timothy who traveled with him and watched him in action. From prison in Rome, Paul wrote, “You . . . know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings” (2 Timothy 3:10–11). In addition, he urged Timothy to “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures” (vv. 14–15).

Paul’s life demonstrated the necessity of building our lives on the bedrock of God’s Word. He reminded Timothy that the Bible is the powerful, God-given source that we need to teach and to demonstrate to others who want to be Christ-followers.

As we thank the Lord for the people who helped us grow in faith, we are challenged to follow their example of living out the truth as we teach and encourage others.

That’s the power of demonstration.

Lord, as others have demonstrated Your truth to us, may we in turn show it to others.
We are called to live out God’s Word as we teach and encourage others.

INSIGHT

Through the life-giving Word of God people learn of the saving work of Christ and His ability to transform our sinful heart into a righteous one (2 Timothy 3:14–17). The Bible is “God-breathed” and the fountainhead of spiritual healing. Its life-giving properties make it “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (v. 16). The purpose of this divine revelation is to make us complete, equipping us to live godly and productive lives.

How can you teach and encourage others to build their lives on God’s Word?

For further study on 2 Timothy, see christianuniversity.org/courses/the-pastoral-epistles.

Dennis Fisher

By |2018-03-22T08:43:07-04:00March 24th, 2018|
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Direct Instructions

Read: 1 Kings 13:11–22 | Bible in a Year: Deuteronomy 8–10; Mark 11:19–33

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“I have been told by the word of the Lord.” 1 Kings 13:17

My second child was eager to sleep in a “big-girl bed” in her sister’s room. Each night I tucked Britta under the covers, issuing strict instructions to stay in bed, warning her I’d return her to the crib if she didn’t. Night after night, I found her in the hallway and had to escort my discouraged darling back to her crib. Years later I learned her customarily-sweet older sister wasn’t excited about having a roommate and repeatedly told Britta that she’d heard me calling for her. Britta heeded her sister’s words, went to look for me, and thus landed herself back in the crib.

Listening to the wrong voice can have consequences for us all. When God sent a man to Bethel to speak on His behalf, He gave explicit instructions for him to not eat or drink while there, nor return home by the same route (1 Kings 13:9). When King Jeroboam invited him to share a meal, the prophet declined, following God’s command. When an older prophet extended an invitation to dine, the man initially declined, but relented and ate when his elder deceived him, saying an angel told him it was okay. Just as I wanted Britta to enjoy her “big-girl bed,” I imagine God was saddened the man didn’t heed His instructions.

We can trust God completely. His words are our path to life; we are wise to listen and obey.

 

Thank You, Lord, for speaking to me through Your Word. Help me to tune my ears to Your voice and obey.
God’s words are the ones that matter most.

By |2018-03-07T10:10:55-05:00March 9th, 2018|
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Listening to His Voice

Read: John 10:25–30 | Bible in a Year: Exodus 36–38; Matthew 23:1–22

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My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. John 10:27 nkjv

I’m hard of hearing—“deaf in one ear and can’t hear out of the other,” as my father used to say. So I wear a set of hearing aids.

Most of the time the devices work well, except in environments where there’s a lot of surrounding noise. In those settings, my hearing aids pick up every voice in the room and I cannot hear the person in front of me.

So it is with our culture: a cacophony of sounds can drown out God’s quiet voice. “Where shall the Word be found, where will the Word resound?” poet T.S. Eliot asks. “Not here, there is not enough silence.”

Fortunately, my hearing aids have a setting that cuts out the surrounding sounds and enables me to hear only the voices I want to hear. In the same way, despite the voices around us, if we quiet our souls and listen, we will hear God’s “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11–12 nkjv).

He speaks to us every day, summoning us in our restlessness and our longing. He calls to us in our deepest sorrow and in the incompleteness and dissatisfaction of our greatest joys.

But primarily God speaks to us in His Word (1 Thessalonians 2:13). As you pick up His book and read it, you too will hear His voice. He loves you more than you can ever know, and He wants you to hear what He has to say.

Dear Lord, thank You for giving us Your Word. Help me to listen to Your voice as I spend time alone with You.
God speaks through His Word when we take time to listen.

INSIGHT

Throughout the Scriptures, God used a variety of ways to speak to people. Sometimes, God spoke audibly (Abraham, Moses). Sometimes, He communicated by way of dreams (Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar). At other times, God gave His message through prophets (Samuel, Ezekiel). Occasionally, God even sent His message by way of angels, which means “messengers,” as He did with Mary and Joseph.

No wonder the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said, “God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways” (1:1). However, God’s greatest means of expressing His heart to people was His Son, as verse 2 states: “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” That explains why John opened his gospel by describing Jesus as the Word (the Logos) who “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Jesus—the living Word—is God’s ultimate message of love to us! And He is revealed to us in the Scriptures—the written Word.

For more on Jesus as the living Word, check out the conversations from Discover the Word at discovertheword.org/the-living-word.

By |2018-02-02T15:44:24-05:00February 5th, 2018|
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Unraveling the Mysteries

Read: Psalm 119:97–104 | Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 20–21; 2 Timothy 4

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I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Psalm 119:104

I have always enjoyed the wit and insight of Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. One of my favorite cartoons drawn by him appeared in a book about young people in the church. It shows a young man holding a Bible as he tells a friend on the phone, “I think I’ve made one of the first steps toward unraveling the mysteries of the Old Testament . . . I’m starting to read it!” (Teen-Ager Is Not a Disease).

Psalm 119 overflows with the writer’s hunger to understand and experience the power of God’s Word each day. “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (v. 97). This eager pursuit leads to growing wisdom, understanding, and obedience to the Lord (vv. 98–100).

The Bible doesn’t contain a magic formula for “unraveling the mysteries” in its pages. The process is more than mental and requires a response to what we read. While some passages may remain puzzling to us, we can embrace those truths we clearly understand, and say to the Lord, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path” (vv. 103–104).

A wonderful journey of discovery awaits us in God’s Word.

Lord, thank You for the Bible, which gives us wisdom and understanding to follow Your pathway of life today.

A commitment to read and follow God’s Word begins a daily journey of discovering His love and power.

INSIGHT

Psalm 119 is well known as the longest chapter in the Bible. It is an acrostic psalm where each section begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This psalm praises the goodness and value of God’s law. The law is a reflection of God’s character; as we look at the law, we learn about Him.

As you spend time studying God’s Word this week, reflect on what you learn about the character of God. 

J.R. Hudberg

By |2017-10-05T16:16:19-04:00October 30th, 2017|
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