The Love of the Word

The Bible. God's perfect, holy WORD. A love letter from Jesus to each of us.
I listened to a message my pastor preached while we were away in St. Johnsbury. In fact, I have listened to it over and over. It impacted me deeply. The title of the message was "Whatever Happened to the Word of God?" In it, he speaks of a man who preached the word of God in Underhill, VT during the time of the Civil War. He spoke of how this man saw GREAT REVIVAL in his time of ministry. The man? Rev. Mark Atwood. The reason my pastor even knows about him? His grave is in the cemetary directly behind our church. His tombstone is in the shape of a pulpit with a Bible carved into the top of it. A memorial of this man's love for the Word of the Lord. Here is the part that hit my heart like an arrow in a bullseye...
Rev. Mark Atwood died 66 years before my pastor was even born. God, who is omnipresent, looked ahead in time and caused the Rev. Mark Atwood to be a silent witness to my pastor 108 years AFTER his death. This man's love for God is a memorial.... YEARS after his death. That is more powerful than ANY WORDS you could write on a tombstone... more powerful than any eulogy that could be given... HE LOVED THE WORD OF GOD. Period. And the way I see it, John 1:14 states that the Word of God became FLESH and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ our Savior is the living Word of God. You cannot separate the two. Don't try to tell me you love God if you don't love His Word.

EQUALS .

It is a very powerful thing to think about my own life and the impression it will leave for those who come after me. Will they look at my grave and think, "Wow, Michelle REALLY loved the Word of the Lord!" Will the person who gives my eulogy say anything at all about my deep love for the Lord and His Word?" I feel deep conviction when I think back to my earlier years as a Christian... the HOURS and HOURS I spent with my nose in the Book, doing my own Bible studies. I still love the Word and I have read it cover to cover 7 times (currently on # 8). But I am only reading it. I haven't thrown myself into deep STUDY of the Bible in far too long. And I believe my life shows that. Which reminds me of the question my pastor posed to us two nights ago at mid-week Bible study... Who do people really meet when they meet me? Is is Jesus? Or not? Pastor, thank you so much for preaching your heart and the heart of Jesus. I have been deeply moved by your messages of late, and am making some changes in my life as a result. I want to draw as near to Jesus as I can in these last days!