Words Of Life
You Have The Words Of Life - John 6:68
As a child, we went to a Salvation Army church in Sydney. We would go to Sunday School before the service, and after that, the whole family went to the main service. Mum would take a bag of tricks to keep us entertained; reading books and colouring-in books and we would sit on the church pew, or at our parent's feet with on-ear on the service and our focus on the colouring-in.
Occasionally something of interest would spark our attention, like 'testimony time' when one of the grown-ups would testify of an answered prayer. On occasions, there would be a particularly rousing chorus and even a waving of the Salvation Army's 'Blood and Fire' flag.
On particular image is seared into my childhood memory. On the front wall of the church hall, a scripture had been painted large enough to be seen by everyone: 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever': Hebrews 13:8. You could say this was my first memory verse, and it had a massive impact on my life.
To begin with, I grew up believing that Jesus was alive because if he was alive back then, he is alive now. I grew up believing that he loved me now like he loved people in the gospels, and he forgives me now like he forgave people. Then, as I faced questions to do with healing and grace and faith the very first consideration I had was Jesus' life and ministry because it was engrained within me that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever'.
This Word of God, indelibly written on my heart, shaped my thoughts and actions, became a source of life and victory to me for over fifty years.
Jesus said 'the Spirit gives life- my words are Spirit and life.' If we are to have the Life of God, we must have the Word of God. When disciples of Jesus disciples abandoned him, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them if they were going to leave too. Peter replied, 'where are we to go, for you have the words of life' -John 6:68.
What many Christians don't realise is that victory in this life
is inextricably bound to the quality of God's Word living in us!
At least twice, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being powerless because they did not know the Word of God or had nullified it with their own teaching. Once, when Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him with a question Jesus looked at them and said- "You've missed the whole point, you don't know God's Word or His power" (Matt 22:29). Another time Jesus told the Pharisees that that had made God's Word void of power in their lives through their own traditions. Imagine that, by adding human tradition to God's Word, we nullify its power!
In contrast, we can have God's power working within us and for us by having His Word engrafted in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 says the 'the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword". The word 'living' means it has life and is able to impart life. God's Word is His DNA; it will produce His life in us.
Years ago, my eldest daughter took the top of a pineapple and planted it in a pot. She put the pot out the back of our house and left it there. Occasionally it got watered, but more often than not, it got neglected. Eventually, our daughter moved away to get married. We sold the house and moved into a rental. We were going from a large two-storey house out in the country to a smaller home in town, but I took the pot and the little pineapple plant with us to the rental because I'm a father and it reminded me of our daughter.
A year later we bought the house that we're living in now, 150kms from where we used to live. We've always had too much stuff, but again I took the pineapple plant in its pot to our new house. It still hadn't produced a pineapple- but it was my daughter's plant, so I was taking it. We're planning to stay in this house now for a long time so two years ago I finally decided to plant my daughter's pineapple plant and to celebrate I took a photo of it planted and texted it to her, saying her plant had "found it's forever home".
Last week I was walking past that plant and low and behold, almost hidden amid its prickly leaves was a little pineapple growing beautiful. The pineapple plant was growing a little pineapple!
1 Peter 1:23 say that we have been born again, not of perishable seed but of seed that is imperishable. The Word of God is an imperishable seed- if watered and acted upon it will produce the Life of God in us.