The Living Word – EP20
Ephesians 2:3
...and were by nature children of wrath.
Jeremiah 31:33
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
The Living Word
Hello, and welcome back to the One Thing Podcast! This week has been an incredible week so far, beginning with Sunday, which was the day of Pentecost. It’s been exciting because God not only is refreshing His people with His presence, but also unfolding His Word and helping us to understand so much.
"God not only is refreshing His people with His presence, but also unfolding His Word..."One discussion that we had even with our youth this week was bringing it back to the Word of The Lord, the words that He had given His people through the Ten Commandments, way back at Mount Sinai with Moses. Even as we were discussing the Ten Commandments with the youth, we were talking about “thou shall not steal, thou shall not murder...” but going back to the first commandment, beginning there, the Lord had said to His people, “Thou shall not have any other gods before me.”
"What are the gods that we put before God today?"Talking with the youth and even talking with different people this week, it’s been the question of, “What are the gods that we put before God today?” We were going on and on talking about the different things that we may have placed before God-the places where we placed our attention more than with Him. The more we began to speak the more we realized that we can’t even get past the first commandment, let alone numbers two through ten.
"...human nature itself is rebellious to the Word of God."The reality has come to the fact, and is so true in the Bible, of how the Bible says not only did we break this command but how incapable we are of following the commands of God without the empowerment. The Word of God says in Ephesians that we were by nature children of wrath. By human nature, human nature itself is rebellious to the Word of God. It is rebellious to the commands and it cannot follow His ways due to sin and due to the evil of man’s nature.
Yet, we have such hope in the Living Word today!Yet, we have such hope today! We have hope because God has sent His Word once again, not to be written on stone tablets, but the Word made flesh in our Lord Jesus Christ. The night that He was born was a beautiful night. It was God’s Word. He was God’s Word now coming alive with arms and legs, and we think of the life of Jesus.
"When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ...He also comes to live inside of us..."Everywhere that He walked, in everything that He did, He was the Word made flesh in action. So, those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ shall also do the same. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Word made flesh, He also comes to live inside of us, bringing not only Himself but really the fullness of the Word and the commands of God, and the ability now to carry them out. See, Jesus fulfills the Word of God in Jeremiah 31:33, where it says, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
"...when we put our trust in Him, He comes and makes His abode within our hearts."When we surrender to the Lord, when put our trust in Him, He comes and makes His abode within our hearts, within our lives, and He writes the law now on our hearts. No longer on stone that doesn’t move or walk around, but now written on our hearts- the flesh of our hearts- that we would fulfill and do the will of the Father.
Will you surrender today? Will you look at the commands of God and say, “You know what, Lord? We are incapable, but it be for the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the power of the one who had come in the flesh, the living Word who has fulfilled it. Now, that Lord, You would fulfill it also in our lives.”
"God empowers us for one, and one thing only: to fulfill His Word and to do His will."You see, God empowers us for one, and one thing only: to fulfill His Word and to do His will. So may we come to the Lord today remembering the great gift that He has given, His very Word in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only stopping there, but also giving us the hope that we, too, would live and be formed in the image of Christ to be the
walking, living Word today. Amen and amen.