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The word of God is living and powerful.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.
HEBREWS 4:12, 16
Oh how we are privileged by God's grace for Him to produce and preserve His love letter for us (the Bible)!
The Bible is not a dead compilation of rules to make us live by right external behaviors. The Bible is the living Word of God for us to know the true indwelling life of Christ. The Bible is our life line to Him!
LIVING IN THE WORD
There was a time when reading the Bible was laborious for me. Deep down, I delighted in God's Word, but reading it was more of a duty. I was striving to study through self-effort.
Then God lovingly led me to a place of brokenness where He exposed the futility of self-effort and began to reveal Christ as my life! Now studying the Bible is becoming the greatest adventure of my life!
What a profound and sweet fellowship I am growing to experience with Christ as I seek to see Him and to personally relate to Him through the Scriptures!
The first step in studying the Bible is to simply observe, and not to jump right into trying to interpret and apply Scriptures. This observation period of Bible study is like a grand treasure hunt as the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus Christ as the Treasure!
A key aspect of my discipleship ministry is to invite others in on this treasure hunt! This initial Scripture observation period is a training opportunity for us to ask God to reveal to us truths, and for each of us to learn to personally hear God's voice.
The initial Scripture observation time is when the living words from God take root in a our hearts. In time, God will nurture these plantings to grow us through the subsequent interpretation and application of the Scriptures.
PRAYING FROM THE WORD
Prayer is not an activity, but is a relationship with Jesus Christ rooted and nurtured in God's Word.
The phrase "God's Word" includes the profound meaning that God personally speaks to His children. He speaks to us in order to move us to respond to Him in prayer. Therefore, it is God who initiates prayer.
We sometimes find it easier to gather for prayer without prioritizing the time to feed upon God's living Word that is the source of living prayer. It's seems easier to us to talk to God rather than to listen to Him.
We can be tempted to believe that prayer is only a way to get our perceived needs met. Our greatest need, however, is to personally hear God and to commune with Him through His Word.
Prayer will always be the fruit of mining God's
Word for the treasures of His heart. He loves to share His heart with
our hearts! He made sure of this by uniting us with His Son through His
cross and resurrection!
CLOSING
One special way to commune with God's heart is to pray Scriptures back to Him as we read the Bible. Here is my prayer with you and for you:
Lord, may we run with Your endurance
the race You have set before us,
looking unto You dear Jesus,
the Author and Finisher of our faith,
who for the joy set before You,
You endured the cross for each of us.
Lead others to join us in this race
to testify of Your victory.
We humbly pray in Your name, amen.
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The Living Word 
