Week Two: Deeply Rooted - The Word of God

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
--2 Timothy 3:16-17

"For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division between soul and spirit..."
--Hebrews 4:12

What is the Word of God?

We all have our "churchy" answers: it's the Bible, God's written code for how we act and live, it's a roadmap, it's how we live our lives. All of these are decent answers, but they just don't seem to drive home what exactly the Word of God really is.

As you can see from the verses above, the Bible has many entrees describing what the Word of God is. It's a "double-edged sword," useful for "teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness," it's also described as a mirror, a "lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." All of these things sum up the Word of God and its importance.

This week, the focus of our discussion was on how we as Christian can become rooted in the word of God. On Monday, we heard from Ken, an elderly man who helps with the Navigators at the University of Northern Iowa. He emphasized a lot about what the Word of God is and is not. Much of what he said for what the Word of God is has already been stated earlier in this blog post, but what caught my attention was what the Word of God isn't. The Word of God is not something that is left up to our judgment. "All scripture is God-breathed." It is not our place to pass judgment on scripture because it is the divine Word of God. This idea is something that stood out to me because I find myself judging the scriptures from time to time.

On Tuesday, we had most of the night off, but my team leader John and I met in our weekly one on one time to talk about how I was doing in keeping up with all the program requirements and in working on memory verses and Bible Study.

On Wednesday, Kevin DeFelice talked to us about how the Word of God has an impact on our lives. He gave examples showing how the Word of God helped in different ways - such as convicted, supporting, and leading - throughout his life. I liked what he had to say, but what probably got to me more what when a girl named Jill came up and shared her testimony about how the Word of God had been powerful in her life. When she recited Isaiah 55:9, I felt as if God was talking straight to me through her. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." This was really big for me because I was so exhausted at that point and really kind of wondering what in the world God was doing with some worries I had on my mind.

Thursday we had to say good-bye to Justin for a few days (he had to go to a wedding), and we decided to have Bible Study outside of Smoothie King (which serves insanely delicious smoothies, if you ever drive by one). We again went over how the Word of God was important to our lives and how useful it was as a tool for God. Afterwards, we had a few shenanigans in the parking lot of a strip mall when Isra and I were left behind at Target. We wound up "hijacking" our ride back when John and Mark were in the middle of the drive-thru at McDonald's. (The cashier gave us some pretty interesting looks.)

Friday was group movie night. I watched Tangled (since the other choice was the new Karate Kid) and Gladiator. It was a great time to chill out and have some fun before the weekend.

Saturday we went out and did beach evangelism. The first guy who talked to us just kept talking to us for hours while we tried to get a word in, but the last group we spoke to was much better at making conversation. They were two young women. One claimed to be a Christian while the other didn't exactly commit to any religion. Both (but especially the one who didn't claim to be a Christian) seemed to focus a lot on love and good works. They were willing to admit that sin was in the world, but the one who didn't claim any religion found it difficult to believe their needed to be a reason for Jesus to be perfect. It was a long conversation, and I don't think anyone's mind was changed, but I feel as if we witnessed for Christ well (to the Holy Spirit's credit, not ours).

Tomorrow will be a day of relaxing and welcoming back Justin. The whole program is starting to pick up speed, and it's hard for me to believe that we're already approaching week three. Happy Father's Day to all the dads (and especially to mine, of course)!