Joe: Hi everyone, thank you all for joining us today. My name is Joe and I'm joined by Tom.
In this segment we'll be discussing Chapter 3 from Volume 3 in the "Basic Elements of the Christian Life."
The title of this chapter is "Pray-reading the Word."
Tom, at the beginning of this chapter it talks how young believers and new believers and
actually any believers, how actually one of our greatest needs is to come to the Word
to be nourished and supplied by the Word.
Can you share a little bit about this principle of being nourished by the Word?
Tom: Sure. After a baby is born, first thing they need is to be nourished. A baby needs milk and needs milk from its mother.
And if the baby is not fed and nourished properly it will eventually it will die.
And so the greatest need even for us in our spiritual life is to be nourished. We might think that
what we need is learning or studying or some kind of education or academic thing but actually
our greatest need is to be nourished. We need to be fed. This thought and this concept is
in the Bible very much. 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 refers to newborn babes.
It says, "As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word that by it they would grow
into salvation." Then verse 3 goes on to say, "If you have tasted that the Lord is good,"
indicating not only do we need to eat and drink the milk of the word but
we need to taste it, which makes it enjoyable, that the Word of God should be something that's enjoyable,
that we receive in an eating way. Jeremiah 15:16, this Old Testament prophet,
he says this, he said, "Your words were found and I ate them and Your words became
unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." This indicates that he was enjoying the Word, he was taking it into himself to be nourished.
Joe: You mentioned this principle of eating
the Word and being nourished by the Word, but a lot of people when they come to the
Bible their first thought is to study the Word and to study what they're reading.
So can you share along the lines of how the best way to be nourished by the Word?
Tom: Sure. Well you know we all need to study the Bible; there's no question about this:
that we need to learn, we need to learn the truth and be equipped with the truth in God's Word.
But as believers we also need to be nourished by the Word. And this message you know that's
in the "Basic Elements of the Christian Life" is a message on pray-reading the Word,
which really strengthens this thought that we need to be nourished in addition to all
of our study. In John chapter 6 verse 63, the Lord says this, He says, "It is the Spirit
that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,"
indicating that the Lord's words are not just doctrine, they are Spirit
and life and that we need to use our spirit, the deepest part of our being, for us to receive
the Word of God. For many of us this is revolutionary. We always just used our mind to read and understand.
But here is a new thought; my, that we could receive the word of God by exercising our
spirit as we come to the Word to pray and enjoy the Word by tasting it through our prayer and through the exercise of our spirit.
Joe: It's really helpful to see that not
only we can come to the Word to study it and to know more about the Lord but also we can
come to the Bible to be fed and to be nourished in order to grow in the Christian life.
Tom, thank you for joining us today, and thank you all for joining us. In the next segment
we will be discussing more about how to receive nourishment and how to pray-read the Word.