The Living Word

[Mrs. Warrior]

The Word was with God in the beginning and was sent to live among us. John wrote “we beheld His glory” elsewhere it says “the law came through Moses,but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. The law written by the hand of God on stone was to show people that they could not of their own volition keep the law to please God; it was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, to come to the awareness of their human nature. In the new covenant, as it was foretold by Jeremiah, God said “I will write my law in their hearts and minds”. And it is with the most tender touch God writes on a heart that is willing.

Two instances of Grace ( unmerited favor) come to mind regarding how God makes the connection. He loves unconditionally.

Peter, a fisherman who after not catching any fish all night long, meaning he would not have the means to care and provide for his family that day; the Lord told him where to put down his net, so he did ( his part- faith, believing) and when he caught so many fish, he was overwhelmed at the love shown to him that he didn't earn nor deserve. He came to the end of himself and said “depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man”. The Lord told him he now could be used as a fisher of men. Jesus provided a way for Peter to support his family, he did not expect Peter to follow him and abdicate his duty but provided a way along with a command.

Next, Jesus sought out the woman at the well. He told her, without condemning her, that she sought love from other places, several actually, and that she needed to drink water from the well of salvation and not thirst for love anymore. When the disciples returned, Jesus said He was not hungry, for he had given salvation to a hurting woman and it gave him strength. He said he had other food-giving freely that Grace in truth was an quenchable well of life. This woman was touched by Jesus offer of abundant life and she was instrumental in a whole town hosting and hearing the Words of the Lord, both men and woman being blessed with Grace and truth for living. Jesus made a fallen woman a beautiful evangelist for meeting the needs of others.

Later, when Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem for the Passover, he wept over it. As was prophesied, he knew they would not leave their trusting in the law and their own human efforts, that he was the prophetic Messiah, and that they would reject him. He knew the calamity, again, prophesied long before, that was about to befall them as a nation in the Roman destruction. He warned them to flee in that coming day. Indeed, like the Essene, who fled to the desert in an earlier time to avoid the compromise of Greek and Roman influences, they preserved the Word. They copied the old testament, and put it in clay jars prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and all of the Hebrew scrolls and records a hundred years later. Some two-thousand years later the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed the Old Testament Word of God to the world.

Through the sands of time The Word was given by divine inspiration to the writers, it is a living powerful Holy Spirit sharper than a sword: it divides man from his own helpless inability to save himself, and shows that the Creator God made a way where there was none. Jesus steps lovingly out of eternity and into history and calls for man to see their need. Then, with a love that nothing can compare with becomes as a Father and makes us children with a new nature and a Holy Spirit to teach and comfort.

In these current times the Lord tells us He has loved us with an everlasting love, with each memorial day my husband and I hold hands and take a walk down memory lane. We remember our loved ones who are not with us anymore, with grief we understand that the time to hold them in person is past. But then we walk back into the present day and a new generation of young family members await us. So, with the lessons learned from our history we step out with a determination to love. We remember who they were and relate the accounts of their lives to the next generations to be a blessing and benefit.

As I write this, next to me on the desk is an antique typewriter. I tell the story that it could have been used by Mark Twain. My husband and I are a writing team, we are called to write in the age of the internet, to share Jesus as the One who comes out of history, who knows what you need before you walk into His light in prayer. Who in a radiant warmth of pure love can give you the answer that you are searching for and can give a gentle nudge to walk back to your life with a renewed sense of well being and purpose. We, as believers, with our names written in the Book of Life by the Finger of God in Christs blood, can become the living memorials of God who dwells in temples of the heart.