The written word is one thing, God’s Word is a whole other thing entirely.
The written word can be persuasive, whether it’s truth or a lie.The written word can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing as well. The written word can bring direction, entertainment, encouragement, and color to life here on earth, however, God’s Word IS Life. God’s Word IS Truth. There is a difference between just words, and God’s inspired Word, the Bible. God’s Word births life in a being that was…well, naturally alive, but not ‘living’.
How do I know? I give you two examples. The first, is when I had 5 small children, with the infant being ‘colic’ and crying endlessly leaving me with large amounts of ‘stress’ to say the least, I opened the Word of God and read: “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your Word has given me life.” I have written before how I asked myself, halfway through, before finishing the verse, “What is the comfort in my affliction?” “What does the Word say?”
It doesn’t say, “This is my comfort in my affliction, in that God takes it away.” And it doesn’t say, “This is the comfort in my affliction that God lets me see the answers.” No, it doesn’t say that either.
The Word of God says, in my own summary: “This is the comfort in my affliction- God’s Word is life.”
It was then, that God began to ‘touch me’ as a Great Physician, probing and prodding in and through me, bringing ‘breath’ to my ‘out-of-breath’ life! You see, it’s ongoing. It’s not a one-time thing, it’s day by day, ‘this is the comfort in your affliction, God’s Word is life!’ But God also gave me ‘witnesses’ to His glory. Next,I will share one such witness.
I knew a young woman at the time, a mother of 4, she loved the Lord, home-taught her kids, and (she was a mentor to me).(Yes, Robin, for those who were wondering!) Well, all did not go well with her. She got cancer, then it spread to her lungs, then she didn’t get better, she only got worse-she could barely breathe, she needed oxygen… HOW CAN THIS BE? What’s wrong with this picture? A young woman with children, living for the Lord, and He allows her to get cancer? Everyone had questions…everyone except Robin, that is.
I remember her words from many years back, she said, “Toni, I know what is going on. I understand the whole thing.”
She didn’t pull out some great understanding that she had thought up in her own head, NO- she opened her Bible and began reading aloud! My friend, and mentor, who could barely breathe, started using all of her energy, to read to me! I came to visit, to be a blessing of some-sort, but this woman, (who we didn’t know on that day, only had two weeks to live), read aloud to me from her Bible. The Words took all the mystery away for her! The Words were life and she passionately wanted to share them with me.
How can I ever forget that? I write about this, and remember this often, because, there was no mystery for Robin! God had revealed everything to her, and it meant everything to her that she share it with me. Breath for her was a very difficult thing, yet at this moment in time, she took her breath and spoke His Word of life. It was as if I was enveloped for a small amount of time in the Kingdom of God and the power of the word that went out through this weak voice as she read was indescribable!
Do you want to hear the Word of life that came from Robin on this unforgettable day? A woman that had had some rough days, and bad news, and trials extreme? She read the whole of chapter 4 in 2 Corinthians, but I am only going to give you a sample at this time. Robin opened her Bible and read, “…as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.”
But you might be thinking, God didn’t answer those prayers for healing, how can that be mercy? Robin took a breath and spoke His word and told me, “I understand everything.” She understood His great mercy and love, and she had received it. So she did not lose heart, instead she turned around to give to me these words of ‘life’, so that I would not ‘lose heart’.
And Robin kept reading:
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6).”
What a contrast, “For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness”, in that Robin was so weak and so sick, yet, “who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” – is what she set out to do! How could I forget these words? They weren’t words at all, they were all that was going on in that very moment. This was ‘life’ happening in me, from a woman who was a ‘bondservant’ to Jesus sent to suffer ‘darkness’ so that God’s light could shine through her and give God glory. Not just for that day, but for even now and all eternity. And she understood and had peace! I witnessed this and tell you today, many years later.
Robin is an inspiration to me even today. She encouraged me in the ‘light of the life’ in God’s word because she had understanding and ‘knowledge’ of the glory of God, and soon to see the face of her Jesus, she explained it all to me:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4 8-10).
God’s word brought life into her sick and tired spirit reminding her, yes, Jesus died, but He rose again, and she would too!
“…Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16,17).
You see, these Words are more than words. They are rich, and ‘past finding out’, they are life and light, they are treasure. We have trials today and worries, but the Bread of Life, the Word that is for yesterday, today and forever reminds us that the things which we see with our eyes everyday, the rent, the clothes, the food, the jobs- we can see all that, it’s just temporary, but the things which are not seen, like God,and His angels, and many of the special family members or friends, who are no longer here on this earth, they are eternally living – living with Jesus in heaven.
So Robin sat with me on that day, to give to me, not the other way around. She gave me what was life to her at that particular moment. She read from God’s Book, His Holy Word. They were the words that gave life to her. And she lives on in my life and many others, along with many of the saints that lived for Christ, but were taken home.
God was shining His light of truth through her darkness of sickness. And she read on, do you have ears to hear these words today? She did, even after great suffering:
“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God…”(2 Corinthians 5:9,10,11).
God’s light shone through darkness that day in incredible ways and His word, brings life, and that is what I write about. There are T-shirts that say ‘Life if good’, well, the life that we can see with our eyes is not always good, but the life that we can’t see that is hidden with Christ in God – now, THAT is good! God’s Word will help us see it every time!
Thank you Robin. Forever you inspire me, and many others,to live a life that is ‘pleasing to Him’. You are absent from us, but we rejoice because you are present with the Lord! Until we meet again…
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