Bible League: Living His Word The grass withers, the flower fades,but the word of our God will stand forever. What is the nature of the Bible and how should we relate to it? Should we take its words seriously? Can we rely on them? Or are they just interesting artifacts from ancient times that say something about those times, but say nothing to us? After all, we live in a world of change. Nothing stays the same. The only constant seems to be that there is nothing constant. Things come and things go. Isaiah spoke, but Isaiah was a mere man. Men say all sorts of things. Why take Isaiah's word more seriously than any other man's? Indeed, Isaiah seems to have undermined his own message. He likened people to grass and said, "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it" (Isaiah 40:6-7). Does this not apply to Isaiah himself? Are not his words the mere words of a withering blade of grass? People come and people go and their words come to naught. Why should anything be different in his case? Isaiah, however, does not draw this conclusion. Although he was a withering blade of grass and a fading flower of the field like everyone else, he proclaimed his message not as his own but as the fixed and firm word of God Himself. Isaiah knew he would fade away, but he also knew that his words would stand forever because they came from a place above and beyond his transient existence. In this ever changing world we live in people desperately search for words that will stand fixed and firm; they frantically search for words that speak unchanging truth about our world. Those of us granted the eyes to see and the ears to hear believe that Isaiah's words, along with all the words of the Bible, broke into this temporal world of ours from heaven above and gave us the eternal words we need. These words have the same status as Jesus' words, of which He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). And we know that this is the case by the faith that rises up within us when we hear them, for "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading1 Kings 1, 2 1 Kings 1 -- David in Old Age Anoints Solomon as King NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 1 Kings 2 -- David's Charge to Solomon; David's Death NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 22:54-71 Luke 22 -- Preparing the Passover; Jesus Arrested, Disowned by Peter NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Using a dull ax requires great strength,so sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed. Insight Trying to do anything without the necessary skills or tools is like chopping wood with a dull ax. If your tool is dull, you should sharpen it to do a better job. Similarly, if you lack skills, you should sharpen them through training and practice. In each situation, sharpening the ax means recognizing where a problem exists, acquiring or honing the skills (or tools) to do the job better, and then going out and doing it. Challenge Find the areas of your life where your “ax” is dull, and sharpen your skills so you can be more effective in God's work. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Songs 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon.Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in a tenfold degree. Amongst flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with him, for the King in his beauty transcends all. "I am the rose of Sharon." This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not "the rose" alone, he is "the rose of Sharon," just as he calls his righteousness "gold," and then adds, "the gold of Ophir"--the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is variety in his charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of his love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth his beauty? Human speech and earth-born things fail to tell of him. Earth's choicest charms commingled, feebly picture his abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart forever! Daily Light on the Daily Path Ezekiel 48:35 "The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, 'The LORD is there.'"Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, Revelation 21:22,23 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. • And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. Psalm 17:5 My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped. Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. Joel 3:20,21 But Judah will be inhabited forever And Jerusalem for all generations. • And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged, For the LORD dwells in Zion. Zechariah 2:10 "Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," declares the LORD. Revelation 22:3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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