For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ~ Hebrews 4:12 ESV
YouVersion has a new campaign going right now, celebrating that they are fast approaching 500,000,000 installs.
They should be lauded for making the Bible available to so many! They deserve honor for translating the Scriptures into languages that it’s never been in before.
They are changing lives, but not by pointing out where lives need to change, but rather by making available the love letter that makes one want to change.
God’s Word is alive and it cuts through all our posturing and pretending. His Word helps us get through the jumbled mess that is our “thinking”. It reveals are deepest thoughts and intentions that we have hidden even from ourselves.
Brimstone-type preachers and zealots may point it out, but in a grasp at self-defense, we tend not to hear. Instead, we feel judged and criticized and retreat even farther away from the grace that saves.
But God’s word, like a scalpel in the hands of a skilled surgeon, cuts right through it all, with both precision and compassion.
Our objective should not ever be to tell people where they are messing up, but rather to show them where they are missing out.
The Bible is alive and we should be living it for all to see.
As St. Francis of Assisi wrote: “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.”
(Make sure to check out the YouVersion page on this blog to learn about my reading plans. There are more to come)
P.S. To hear more about YouVersion and how it came to be, and to quite honestly see what God can do with just one little idea, I encourage you to watch this: