Archive for the ‘the living word’ Tag

“Light For The Journey!”

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” — Psalm 119:105 (CSB)

We live in a world anxious for what’s ahead, craving step-by-step GPS-level certainty from a God who often only offers us a lantern. The promise of Psalm 119:105 is not a floodlight for the future. It is a lamp for the next faithful step. Jesus doesn’t offer us a spotlight that reveals everything. He offers Himself, a Lamp to our feet and a Light to our paths.

God’s Word doesn’t reveal everything all at once, only enough to take the next step in trust. He offers not a complete itinerary but a faithful Guide to Himself. Jesus, the Living Word, walks with us by the Spirit. He illumines our path not so we can control the future, but so we can walk with Him into it.

When you belong to Christ, your steps are not left to chance. They are lovingly guided by His hand. Though He never promised the road would be easy, He promised to walk it with us, step by step, as the Living Word.  Psalm 37: 23-24 tells us: 

“A person’s steps are established by the Lord, and he takes pleasure in his way. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord supports him with his hand.”

His promises do not always erase life’s uncertainties, but they do guarantee that in Him, we are never alone on the journey. In Him alone, we have certainty, and we can rest on that! He illuminates every step and anchors us in the Father’s will by the Spirit. His Word is not only written, but also embodied. It is personal. It is Him.

Even when life knocks you down, when the fog rolls in thick, and your next season feels unclear, you are not lost or alone. Jesus remains your compass. The Scriptures are not abstract advice. He uses the scriptures as words through which He speaks, pointing forward, guiding gently, and reminding you who walks beside you.

“The word of God is the source of clarity for all our questions and perplexities. It is not the solution of a problem, but the solution of life itself.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, p. 36

A Story to Reflect On:

Corrie ten Boom, a Christian who became a voice of gospel hope and forgiveness, reflects in her memoir The Hiding Place, on a childhood moment with her father when she was afraid she wouldn’t be strong enough to suffer:

“Corrie,” he began gently, “when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?”
“Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie.”
— Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, Ch. 2 (“Full Table”)

This moment of wisdom stayed with her for the rest of her life, and it remains a powerful reminder for us, too. God gives what we need when we need it. Not before.

It’s the same pattern we see in Scripture.

When God led the Israelites through the wilderness, He didn’t give them a month’s supply of manna. He gave them just enough for one day:

“The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.… No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
— Exodus 16:4, 19 (CSB)

Why? So His people would learn to trust not just His provision, but His presence. Because daily bread trains daily trust. God wanted His people to look to Him each morning. Not to stockpile certainty, but to walk in dependence. Like manna in the wilderness, God’s Word nourishes us one step at a time. Not for hoarding, but for walking. Not for control, but for communion.

God doesn’t hand us the full journey plan or all the strength up front. He gives us the grace, wisdom, and guidance we need, not before, but exactly when it’s time to step forward. Like a good Father, He knows how to prepare us, not for the unknown in general, but for the next moment of trust.

When we feel like we’re wandering or waiting, His Word reminds us we are still being led. The Light of the world never leaves His own in darkness. Every promise, every command, every whisper in the pages of Scripture is meant to anchor our hearts in His presence.

So, if you’re in a season of not knowing, whether about work, family, health, or calling, lean into the lamp. Trust that God’s Word will guide your next right step, even if the tenth one is still hidden.

 Where do you need God’s guidance right now?

Pause. Open His Word. Listen. Then move forward, one step at a time, with Him.

Prayer

Lord, when I can’t see what’s ahead, help me trust the Light You give. Quiet my fears, steady my steps, and lead me by Your Word. One step at a time with You. Amen.

“The next step is all that is required.”
— C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Becoming An Ethically Responsible Christian Disciple! Part 4 (Our Christian/ Biblical Worldview)

Part 4A:

Part 4B:

Full Message:


Bible Verses: Colossians (various scriptures)


Introduction:

In Jesus, God’s Elect One, you and every other person you know have been elected/chosen to be at the highest place of honor and privilege possible for a human being, participating with Jesus in his union and relationship with His Father, in the Holy Spirit. In fact, all of what it means to be truly and fully human is seated, truly and mysteriously, with the Father, and in Jesus who share in our humanity. Jesus represents and substitutes for each and all of us human beings before the Father not so we don’t have to participate but so that we can, with him!

Theological Theme:

Because of the Reality of Jesus in our humanity, now glorified, we are invited and urged to share more deeply in in the humanity of Christ by the Spirit Christ than in the divided humanity of those who reject God! In the worshipful and relational way of Jesus, we who trust and believe in him, prioritize and live out the Great Command to love God with our all, first, and then, at His direction and lead in the Spirit, to love our neighbors as ourselves.

As the late George MacDonald has written: “God can no more than an earthly parent be content to have only children: he must have sons and daughters—children of his soul, of his spirit, of his love—not merely in the sense that he loves them, or even that they love him, but in the sense that they love like him, love as he loves. For this he does not adopt them; he dies to give them himself, thereby to raise his own to his heart; he gives them a birth from above; they are born again out of himself and into himself.” ― George MacDonald

Christ Connection:

There is a call from the Father for us to be different and to be transformed in Christ in the Holy Spirit; to begin and keep becoming and growing up in Him, right here and right now! To keep sharing in the mind of Christ about our world, that we are forever going to be relating with and oversee with Jesus in a larger more fulfilling way! We’re not in a pretend mode right now just because everything here on earth will one day be transformed! In believers, and by the Holy Spirit, Jesus has an earthly body that still resides in our present history, interacting with his Father and our neighbors in love. Obeying Jesus right now is as vital as it was vital when he actually walked the earth in his distinct human body because he is the Risen Lord and still has an ongoing and present ministry!

Missional Application:

Jesus, being our Great Ethic, has pointed out what it means to participate with him in relation to God and our neighbor:

A lawyer asked [Jesus] a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40, NRSV)

As Dr. Gary Deddo points out in his article “Theological Ethics”:

“When we love God with all we are and have, there shines forth a reflection of it towards those who are not God. We love God because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our love for God is a response, the right and appropriate response, to God’s love for us. We first receive God’s love and we first love God. When we love the neighbor in the way God would have us, then like Jesus, we are passing on to others what we have received from God. Think of the offering of the Lord’s Supper and Paul’s words: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you” (1 Cor. 11:23). In God’s economy, we can pass on only what we have first received. First things must remain first, otherwise, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, we will lose both the first and the second things.”

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