Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Isaiah 40:6–8
A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
CONSIDER THIS
Happy New Year! And welcome to the New Year—New Word Wake-Up Call Challenge.
Next to Ephesians 5:14, which we rehearse every day at the top of the order, Isaiah 40:8 may be the core text of the Wake-Up Call. It is the stark naked truth.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.
It issues a terse warning and a clarion call without even saying either. What's the warning?
Everything you see is coming to nothing save one thing—the Word of God.
What's the call?
Build your life on the one thing—the one thing that endures forever—the Word of God. It stands to reason that anything on that which endures forever will also endure forever.
The text also asks a question without asking it. What's the question?
How does one build one's life on the one thing that endures forever—the Word of God?
We have to get it out of the bindings of a book and into our lives.
The Bible contains 782,815 words, arranged into 31,102 verses coming together into 1,189 chapters intricately arranged into 66 books. It was written over a period of 1,500 years, on three different continents, and in three different languages. Here's the most amazing part: all of it is straight from the mouth of God and all of it tells one story.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (John 1:1–4)
I often liken the Word of God to the universe. Every word—a star breathed by God. Every verse—a constellation. Every chapter—its own solar system. Every book—an entire galaxy. And all of it working together as an inspired universe of revelation, intricately and intimately illuminating the nature and name, the character and craft, the goodness and glory of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.
So how does one build one's life on the one thing that endures forever?
One verse at a time.
Start with a verse—a constellation of God-breathed words. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight a verse. I would love to know what it is. You can click on this link and share it with me. This will be our January series with the Wake-Up Call. I will be writing on some of these texts sent in by readers while sharing guidance on how we might together build our lives on such forever-enduring words from God.
One verse at a time.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.
What will be your verse?
THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Lord Jesus, you are the Word of God made flesh. And as such you are the Light of the World.
I want you, like never before, to be the Light of my life—the Word of God made flesh in me.
Would you lead me to a word from your Word? Highlight a verse for me that it might become—in time—an illuminating constellation of revelation and transformation for my soul.
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for my good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
