Man He Preached A Powerful Word!

Man, he or she preached a powerful Word.  Have you ever heard that?

My thoughts sometimes makes me very unpopular but it’s okay. Paul’s thoughts got him in trouble and so did Jesus’ thoughts. So here’s my TfTD: I hear people talking about what a powerful word they heard and I honestly wonder if they know what the  Word is.

That’s the thought. You can stop the reading right here but if you want an expanded application of this thought, read on.

Back in the 70’s I joined a very warm Church. In those days it was the warmth and kindness of the people which I needed so desparately that ultimately resulted in my decision to join. After service was over the older saints would gather around me and tell me how much promise I had. I needed that kind of assurance because at that time my life was like a house built on top of a volcano.  Yes, quite unstable.  I loved the Church.  It  one bright spot in my week.

They had just gotten a new preacher and his emphasis was not on the Word. To be fair and to split hairs, he who eventually became my friend, did what many preachers do today, i.e., he preached some very powerful thoughts but most of them could not stand a close inspection by a true Word seeker. Over the years the Churches’ emphasis changed from being very warm and welcoming to one that was focussed on the preacher and everybody adored him including me.

To fast-forward, I rose to a position of prominence. I taught many of the weekly Bible Studies when the preacher, the Pastor was unavailable and during those times I attempted to refocus the Church’s attention on digging in the Word for themselves. One evening I was leading the Bible Study when we came to a fairly easy verse of Scripture. I asked the people to read the verse and tell me what it says. Forget the philosophies and forget the thoughts about the thoughts and just read the verse and give it back to me. These very fine brothers and sisters with very high and very low levels of education looked at me with blank stares as if they were in elementary school. Maybe they thought it was a trick question.

After brief moments of silence; perhaps it was 30 seconds of silence, this one brother who had brought one of his female friends to the study spoke up, and I think he wanted to impress her. He rambled on for about 30 seconds and absolutely nothing he said hinted at what was in the verse. I gently gave him back what he said and I asked him, “Where is that in this verse?”  He rambled another few seconds and it had no connection to the verse. To be honest, the people were stuck and there is nothing wrong with being stuck. The point is to start where we are stuck and fix it. Finally, one fairly sharp lady gave me the verse back in her own words and I loved it.  She always came thru and we began to play with the ideas coming out of the verse. But the gentleman with his female friend was there and probably feeling embarrassed which I clearly did not intend to do, but he had to redeem himself so he said this:

“Well, Rev. Radford, can we agree that the Bible is the roadmap to life and living and it is up to us to do whatever we want to do? We can follow it or not.”

I told him that not only did I not see what he said earlier in the verse but I did not see what he just said as being in the verse and a huge part of my job was to help people dig into God’s Word and not their own private philosophies.  That’s where the good juices are.  Whether the person hollers his sermon or speaks it just above a whisper the power comes when you tell me what God’s Word says.
That story takes me back to my original TfTD. When people talk about having heard a powerful Word, I do wonder if they know what the Word of God is.

It is okay to get mad at me. Some people have stopped responding to me on social media and it’s okay.  I still love you. I hope you keep reading me anyway. The Word of God is so important that while we can enjoy the many ways the sermons are preached, we need to get beyond all the shouting, the whooping, the singing sermons and refocus our churches and our lives on the Word.  That’s where the power is.