“The Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” - 1 Sam 3:21
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” - Col 3:16
Tonight, we as God’s people, will commit ourselves to Him, ourselves, and each other by reading the Bible everyday and journaling what God reveals in His words to us.
The benefits and blessings that we will draw from this new commitment to God, each other, and to ourselves far surmounts any expectation that we might have. Indeed we will reap more benefits than we can think of.
Yet we can expect two important benefits in our lives to happen when the word of God dwells richly in us: 1. We will see and enjoy God 2. Christ will abide in us 3. We are enabled to minister to one another.
God reveals Himself to us through the Bible
The fundamental reason that the Bible is essential is that it is mainly the way God reveals Himself to us. And seeing this revelation of God is the foundation of our joy. As it was in the days of Samuel, so it is in our time: “The Lord appeared… at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel At Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”
When it says “The Lord appeared,” it says something amazing. God was not seen with the eyes of the head, but with the eyes of the heart, for God is “The King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim 1:17). And this seeing happened “by the word of the Lord.” As the Word was heard, the Lord was seen. In this hearing was the seeing. The spiritual hearing of God’s Word becomes the spiritual seeing of God’s glory.
The Lord opens the eyes of the heart to see the glory of Jesus in the Word. God has chosen to reveal Himself to to the world mainly through the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, by means of the written Word, the Bible.
When we read the Bible, God reveals Himself and we will see Him, not with physical eyes but with the eyes of our heart; and by seeing Him we enjoy Him.
Jesus abides in us when we read the Bible
Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you” – John 15:7.
The best way to see what it means for the words of Jesus to abide in us is to look at what Jesus says about abiding a few verses earlier. In verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit.”
Notice the parallel.
In verse 7 He says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,”
and in verse 5 He says, “Whoever abides in me and I in Him…”
I think the point of this switch is to reveal to us how Jesus abides in us, specifically, by His word abiding in us. Meaning to say, when we let the words of Jesus abide in us means letting Jesus Himself abide in us.
The Bible enables christians to minister to each other
When the Word of Christ dwells richly in us, we are enabled to teach, encourage, lift up, and build up one another. When we are immersed in the Bible, we are able to echo the words of Jesus to our fellow Christian brothers and sisters; and when they hear the Word of the Lord, they will see Him and enjoy the beauty and splendor and glory of Jesus.
When we are soaked with the Word of God, we are a vessel that is able to reveal the glory of Christ and we are able love one another by urging each other to a deeper and stronger walk with Jesus.
In conclusion, let the word of Christ dwell richly in you and in doing so, you will reap the reward of seeing and enjoying God, Christ abiding in you, and building up the church. It is a new year of our journey with Jesus, let it count.
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