Many of you were here for our first Sunday of the new year. Jordan cast a vision for our year ahead, sharing resolutions he prays we'll fight for this year as a church family. If you're like me, there has been much to fuel your forgetfulness the past several weeks. With that in mind, here's a reminder of one of Jordan's main resolutions for our church this year. He said,
"To be honest, I've usually avoided pushing a "Read the Bible in a Year" plan, mostly because I'm a pragmatist when it comes to this, knowing that one size does not fit all. We never want to make a spiritual discipline like Bible reading as an external evaluation of godliness (success is if I finish, anything less is failure, which is rubbish). We already over-compare ourselves and measure by un-Biblical standards, so I didn't want to heap on to that mindset. Well, I'm ready to confess my lack of wisdom. We need to read the Bible. We need to be saturated in it, to swim in its comforting waters, to drink from the refreshing grace it gives. I don't need Barna research to tell me that there is an incongruous relationship between those claiming to follow Christ and those who neglect the Word (though Barna has confirmed this through a Lifeway study - 90% who attend church and agree with the statement "I desire to please and honor Jesus in all that I do", but only 19% read their Bible everyday). I know by knowing my own life, understanding the pressures and stresses of a busy life, and observing our culture, even this church culture. So I'm calling all of us, myself included, to humble ourselves by God's grace to inundate ourselves with Scripture this year. Read, Study, and Meditate on God’s Word:
What does the Bible say the benefits are?
1 Peter 2:1-3 'So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation- 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.'
Joshua 1:8 'This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.'
Psalm 1:1-3 'Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, or stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not whither. In all that he does He prospers.'"
So how are you doing so far in your study of God's Word this year? Don't take this as a brow-beating, but as an encouragement to come to Scripture thirsty for living water, because Scripture will satisfy that thirst. We need it, and by knowing it we know God and grow in love for Him.
Click here to listen to Jordan's whole message from January 3, entitled "Extraordinary Grace for Ordinary Life."
