I just put away a worn, manilla envelope containing the New Year’s spiritual resolutions made by members of our church from 1998. If ever proof was needed that most every believer in Jesus Christ struggles with the issue of this week’s blog, that collection of resolutions could be “Exhibit A” for us.

This week we are thinking about the role the Word of God plays in transforming us to missional living.

Most people put it this way in their resolutions: “I want to be more consistent in my devotions.” I can understand that and I think I understand what’s behind those words. I have come to the conclusion that the Bible does not prescribe devotions as much as it describes devotion. We can relate to Howard Hendricks’ statement when he says that “many Christians are like bad photographs: overexposed and underdeveloped.”

We know a lot of the Word of God, our problem is in the application of it. Just how is the Word of God supposed to transform our lives? You might spend time reading it, but then it just seems to float away like a helium balloon in the sky. What’s the solution? I don’t have a golden key, but I’d like to suggest some things to think about:

For starters, do we “believe Jesus or just believe in Jesus?” This question is highlighted by Lance Ford in “Right Here, Right Now.” His point is that sometimes in the intellectualizing of our faith we have made Jesus into a bunch of words. Jesus is then to us simply a collection of words to believe in, rather than a person to believe. If Jesus was real and embodies the truth, then His Word shows me someone to believe, not just gives me words to believe in. Robert Webber put it this way:

“The first question we must address as evangelicals in a postmodern world is this: Do we believe in a book or a person?”

Another thing to consider is what our expectation is in coming to the Scriptures. If we are viewing ourselves as missionaries, we will be reading the Word of God with the view that we will very shortly be doing something about it. We’re not sure when or where yet, but there will come a conversation or opportunity and that passage will come to mind. I have found that the times I play it safe and am not engaged in ongoing personal ministry with people are the times when I have felt little need for a continual feed of the Scriptures in my life. After all, what would I need it for if I’m not doing anything with it?

If we are going to be Bible readers in a post-Christian context like Lancaster, we’re going to have to keep coming back to the point that people want to see it lived out. They want to see an incarnational example of the faith. Just like what we wanted in Jesus.

Mustering up enough energy to read my Bible for daily devotions is not going to work long-term as an end in itself. However, if we see ourselves as missionaries, looking for opportunities to serve people and engage in conversations then pretty soon we’re not going to be able to help but come back to the Word of God because we will need it to fuel our personal ministry.

Walking with you,

Pastor Tim