The Living Word

It must have been a thousand years ago that I preached my first sermon.  Well, almost.  I never thought to figure how many times I would be preaching in the forty years of ministry which was stretching out in front of me.  One day when there was absolutely nothing to do, I took a few minutes and did a rough calculation of the number of times I have preached since that first Sunday.  Not only was I surprised at the sheer number of sermons preached, but I wondered if I ever thought back then what was ahead of me.  Preaching twice, and sometimes three times, a Sunday adds up in a hurry!     

Had I done that figuring back then at the starting line, I might never have left it!  The truly amazing thing is not that I have preached so much, but that all the sermons were inspired by some passage of Scripture.  It would seem that all the preaching texts would be used, but there are still so many waiting to be preached.  There are more texts for preaching than I will ever get to preach.  The Word is inexhaustible.  Any good preacher knows that a text used ten years ago is going to be seen in a different light today or tomorrow.    

One of the things that the Spirit inspired some writer of long ago to write says, "...the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword..."  (Hebrews 4:12)   Another truth proclaimed in the same manner is from II Timothy, "All scripture is inspired by God..."  (II Timothy 3:16)  This inexhaustible Word from which we preachers preach is not a word written for a particular day, but one which the Spirit has written for every generation.  It is not dead, but alive.  Every time we read it, we are reading through a different lens and we should expect not only to hear the old Word heard from long ago, but another one as new as the morning dew.  It is the nature of this living Word.