Encouragement for the Day: Brick Building - Section Seven

Sorry for the delay in getting this one out. I have been busy with getting my oldest daughter settled into college, and getting back to a normal schedule for my youngest daughter who is in high school and busy with club soccer. This has been a hectic month.

In the last blog we took a look at faith as part of our growing up in our relationship with Christ, in this section, we are going to discuss the importance of being in the Word of God. We've all heard the saying "You are what you eat." Well if that is true in the spiritual sense, we need a steady diet of God's Word in order to grow up and mature in our walk with Jesus Christ. We are going to look at the importance of our focus on the Word of God, being saturated in the Word of God and obeying the Word of God.

Steady Diet of the Word

We need to read the Word of God regularly. This is not so we can feel good about ourselves or out of a sense of duty. We do this because it is how we get to know the Lord, His character, His will and His voice. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit we use in battle. It is a road map that directs our path. It is words of life. With regular exposure to the word, we are nourishing our spiritual self just as healthy eating keeps us healthy and strong.

Once we accept Christ as our savior, we should begin to study the word, focus our eyes upon the Lord through the scripture. All scripture is a story about Him! As we do this, we begin to be transformed by Christ. We are converted immediately and transformed over time

Focus on the Word

Focus: Whatever can get your attention can influence you, and whatever can keep your attention can master you. So we need to focus on the Lord.

Focus is a way to be successful at anything we do in life. In our jobs, in athletic training, weight loss, our families, relationships in general…

If we will take note of where we are focused, we may find the areas in our lives where we have idols. Anything that has our focus tends to have our heart.

Let’s set our focus on Christ! Why? ... Because he deserves it. Consider the price that He paid for each of us, the price each of us SHOULD have paid. Focus on the enormous price that was paid. Consider the cross. Focus your eyes upon it. Look into the eyes of your savior who willingly suffered and died for you. Nothing can motivate quite as much as a grateful heart. If we will stay focused we can stay grateful.

Focus: Whatever can get your attention can influence you, and whatever can keep your attention can master you. So we need to focus on the Lord.

Look at King Josiah: 2 Kings 22:1-2 1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king…. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD … not turning aside to the right or to the left. He was focused

Immerse

According to scripture, we are to teach others all about the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe that we are to immerse them in all that the scripture says about them, or in essence, be baptized in the Word. We need to study the Word of God in order to start comprehending the character of our Lord. We need to study it in order to begin to understand how to enter into this relationship. We need to study the Word in order to be able to arm ourselves against our enemy. We need to study so we will be able to discern truth, direction and God's will. As we study, we know Him more, believe Him more and love Him more.

When addressing immersion and baptizing, I am not diminishing the need and practice of baptizing in water as we follow in obedience to Jesus. That is the outward demonstration to the world to show we accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sin and will now follow Him. However, I am looking deeper into the scripture where baptism is mentioned to see if there may be clues to more than a onetime outward demonstration.

There was an old pickle recipe that used the words baptized and dipped. In the recipe, the first part of the process was to dip the cucumber in water referred to as bapto, and then followed by the instruction to baptize the cucumber into vinegar referred to as baptizo. Both steps in the process require the vegetable to be placed in a liquid. So why is one referred to as bapto and the other baptizo? The difference is that while the vegetable is placed in the water, it is cleaned but it is still a cucumber. However, when the cucumber is placed into the vinegar it becomes another thing all together. It is no longer a cucumber but now it is a pickle. See Bible Study Tools for this information.

Immersing ourselves in the WORD (fully saturating ourselves in the WORD)

Obey the Word

We can obey the word and generations will be blessed, or we can disobey and curse many. We need to live in obedience not just to please God, but I believe we need to do so for the sake of others. We need to grow up and consider how our actions may affect others. Take some time to read Deuteronomy 28.

Luke 6:47-49 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Gen 22:18 through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

We need to obey the word, and as a result, we will grow up and mature. But we do it with the indwelling inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will illuminate the word and bring it to mind.

We obey the commands of the Lord as we are introduced to them in order to mature in our walk. In Philippians 3, we are told to live up to whatever truth we have attained. Let's keep that in mind as we are exposed to the Word, but also keep it in mind when walking with others. Let's not hold them accountable for truths they have not even been exposed to yet. As we study the Word, be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Being in the Word, we become familiar to the Lord’s voice and the “types” of things He would say. I believe this is crucial in discerning the Lord from your own thoughts or that of the enemy. We need to surround ourselves with godly people to encourage us, challenge us and hold us accountable to be in the Word.

So seek the word in order to know the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit leads you, be pliable and moldable to the work the Spirit desires to do in you. Think of obeying the word as cooperating with the Holy Spirit who is working in you to complete the work that was starting in you at your salvation.

We need to obey the word and as a result we will grow up and mature.

Remember the word of God is the sword of the Spirit we use in battle. It is a road map that directs our path. It is words of life. Also remember, regular exposure to the word is like eating right physically. We grow up healthy and strong.

See also older posts: Do We Need the Word of God?, Road Map to Freedom and Searching the Scripture