Last week I reflected on how text messaging can become a hindrance to authentic personal connection. As I continue to ponder the matter, I am reminded of one church leader’s constructive criticism concerning a habit that I had when I entered the SMS world. My default perspective was that a text message was mainly just for my information. When I received the info, that was it. But now I recognize that in doing so, I was actually allowing the impersonal element of the tool to dictate my actions. One way to inject the personal element was to respond to the person who sent the message, even just to acknowledge receipt of the message (as the church leader proposed). How difficult could that be?
Further reflection has led me to consider three forms of God’s Word—written, spoken, living. All are important, yet each offers a unique level of God’s communication to the people he loves. I would like to suggest that with each form, the level of personal interaction with the Lord increases.
The written Word—our Bible—may perhaps be likened to God’s text message to us. We read it. But we still tend to control how we treat it. Just like my wrong attitude toward text messaging, I can simply gather information but never let it take hold of me personally and lead me to interact with the one who sent the message. That’s the kind of thing that Jesus addressed when he warned his critics: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life” (John 5.39–40 NLT).
Our reading of the written Word should lead us to the spoken Word. That is, we need to realize that there actually is a person who is speaking to us. It is personal communication. It is not about mastering the content of the Bible but getting to know the Lord who speaks through the Bible. And oftentimes, the Lord also speaks through human agencies—prophets, preachers, teachers—who take the written Word and speak its truths in a very personal address to us, to which we are called to personally respond.
Then, of course, “the Word became flesh” (John 1.14)—the living Word—the most personal form. Even today, when we read and listen to the Word, we are invited to learn personally from the living Lord by meditating on what we receive and by talking with him in prayer. And the Word does “come alive” in us as we respond to him in faith and obedience.
Written Word, spoken Word, living Word. In all of these is the very personal Lord desiring an authentic personal connection with you.
–Keith Y. Jainga