DWELLING WITH THE WORD

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16 NIV)

"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." It is very different to read and know the Word than it is to let it "richly dwell" in your very spirit. This means we find the purpose and pleasure of God's Word. It means that God's Word directs our paths and that the very core of our being is filled with the Word. We don't have the Word as a mere visitor to our lives -- Sunday morning Bible readers! Rather we take the Word of God and let it sift through the "stuff" of our lives until it rests richly in our heart. Then we find the Word on our fingertips and tongues in each and every situation we encounter. As God's Word dwells richly we reap the rich rewards.

-- Pastor Gary Stone 

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THE ESSENCE OF OUR FAITH

“Jesus is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.”  (Colossians 1:18-20 NRSV)

When Henry David Thoreau withdrew from the world for two years to live on Walden Pond, he did so to simplify life and reduce it to its lowest common denominator.  Ponder his words:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  I did not wish to live what was not life, living it so dear, nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.  I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms."

When a Christian reduces life to its [essence], it's Christ.  He is the kernel.  Everything else is husk.  He, and He alone, is our basis for contentment.

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Practical Life of Faith” 


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