Stolen Words....

 Sometimes you don't realize how important something was to you until its gone. Last evening, a bag containing my Bible, journals, study materials and some various other things was stolen from the car. Among its contents was something very special indeed. It was a wedding gift for my future husband. It was a leather journal filled with poems, letters, song lyrics, photos...things I had been collecting since the fourth grade. I had it in the bag with the intention to write in it soon. It was absolutely devastating to lose because its contents were irreplaceable. I had thrown out all the original copies. I actually wept over this loss.

  But a thought occurred to me this morning. I was deeply, deeply saddened by the fact that these words I had been writing for years, expressing love and devotion to a man I haven't even met yet,  had been taken from me. Yet somehow, there was not one small tear shed for the loss of my Bible. The Bible, a written account of God's love for us, His bride....a love letter surpassing the intensity of every sonnet or poem written by a dead Englishman....a truth so deep it can break your heart and pierce your soul. Not one drop.

  There will come a day, maybe not so long from now, when knowing the word will be more important than ever. Darkness is upon us and in greater measures every day. Some terrible day it could actually be illegal to own a Bible. Being a Christian may be your death sentence. The word of the Lord is everything. It is life to us. It is the instruction manual to our lives. But how often do we choose to lay it down for lesser lovers? How often do we see reading God's word as a chore? Why is it not a burning passion to consume every bit of it?

Jeremiah 15:16 says this:

 "Your words were found, and I ate them, 
      And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; 
      For I am called by Your name, 
      O LORD God of hosts."

Ezekiel 3:3 says this:

 "And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness."

Deuteronomy 8:3 says this:

"So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD."

  We have to get a revelation of the importance of the word of God. Nothing means more. It is the love letter the Lord has been writing us since before creation. He has filled page after page with his passionate pursuit of our heart. Consume it. Dwell in it. Breathe it. Sleep it. Write it on the walls of your hearts and speak it often. It is everything.

  Though I am heartsick over the loss of the journal, I grieve over my lack of intensity for the word of the Lord. Any gift I could ever give is meaningless compared to it. Anything I could ever write is useless without it. Eat the scroll, lest the words be stolen from you.