Let the WORD speak for itself

Lately I have been reminded of the power of the Word of God. I often take the Bible for granted, and forget it’s power, but God has been teaching me that His word really is the bread of life.

As I teach Bible class, I have the natural tendency to try to over-explain things. If we read a verse, I get excited and start talking…blah blah blah.

However, for our Easter lessons, they asked that we read the Easter story and allow the kids to respond to comprehension questions. So I tried it. I read about 2 chapters a day for 4 days out loud to the class. Not only did the kids pick up in new pieces of the story, I was struck with the complete simplicity of the Word of God.

So I decided to try something new. Let the WORD speak for itself. This week the students have been learning about Heaven and Hell. Tough subjects- complicated too. As part of their activity they were to look up verses on Heaven and Hell and learn what the scriptures say. I decided that rather than walk through it as a class, they would work independently- read the verse and write down what it says. So far it worked- I mean, boy did they ask questions!!! But I just let them read the verse over and over and all of the sudden things started to click!

As soon as my mouth shut, Gods can open HIS. And He has much better things to say.

This is true for everyone! I just stumbled upon the controversy surrounding Rob Bells newest book “Love Wins”. It seems to me that Rob started letting himself speak for the Word. His ideas, his understanding, and his desires crept into what the Scriptures really say. It’s easy to do- but scary when it happens.

Tonight I was reading in 2 Samuel 23 and they are some of David’s last words:

1 These are the last words of David:
"The inspired utterance of David son of Jesse,
the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High,
the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
the hero of Israel's songs:

2 "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.

3 The God of Israel spoke,
the Rock of Israel said to me:

David wasn’t speaking here of his words, rather he was speaking the WORD OF GOD given to him directly, without human contamination. And how would you like to have your last recorded words be words that God spoke through you! That would be AWESOME!

It’s important. We must not allow human desires and interpretation to cloud the WORD. As I teach my students I know that I have to be careful to “train them in righteousness”. Allow God’s perfect word to speak rather than my own ideas and agenda. It’s hard, but it’s worth it!