He Opened the Book

8/27/2011 11:03:14 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  He opened the Book

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 8:5-6

                Message of the verses:  “5  Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6  Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”

                In these two verses one can see the respect that these people had for the Word of God and for the teaching of the Word of God.  This experience that they had is written of in the NT book of 1Thessolonians:  “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”  When Ezra opened the scroll that contained the portion of the Word of God that he wanted to read and to teach about the people stood and remained standing for a long time, honoring the Word of God. 

                Dr. Wiersbe points out that this kind of worship and honoring of the Word of God is not present in many churches in America today, and this is a sad commentary on the Church in America.  He also points out that the people who were “behind the iron curtain” of years past would risk their lives and stand in line to hear the Word of God read and taught.  When the former Soviet Union was ready to fall there was a man who was visiting there, a man who had a high position in a mission agency.  The people that he was ministering too took him out into a remote part of the countryside so that they could worship the Lord and they were there for the greater part of the evening when one of them said to him “let’s stay up all night to worship the Lord,” and so they did for these people were starved for the Word and for worship and because they felt safe where they were they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and worship the Lord all night.

                The Word of God is not to be worshiped, but it surely is to be respected and reverenced for what it is.  There is much in the Word of God that speaks about the Word of God and one passage that jumps into my mind that does this is the 119^th Psalm, which is the longest chapter in the Word of God taken from the longest book in the Word of God.  It is a beautiful portion of Scripture written by a man who loved the Law of the Lord and showed his love for it by writing this wonderful Psalm.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to have a greater respect for the Word of God and continue to study it each day and read it each day, and honor it by doing these things each day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Read and honor the Word of God.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/27/2011 11:35:49 AM