Daily Devotional Details

Date

Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (NIV)

A whole letter has been given by God to tell us what He is looking for in the church. 1 Timothy spells out for the church what we are to pursue, how we are to behave, and what we are to be about.

People talk all the time about what they are looking for in a church, but what is God looking for in a church? This is the question that we should be asking.

It’s not for us to decide what’s important for the church to be and do, and then look for Bible texts to support our passion. We start with the Bible, where God tells us what is important to Him, so that we can follow after His passion.

We are never to be masters of the Word of God; we should be mastered by the Word of God. We want to be shaped by the Scriptures, so we place ourselves under God’s Word. We are not to be over the Word, selecting what we like and ignoring what we don’t, but under the Word of God.

We want the Bible to be our critic—to rebuke us, correct us, and change us. Otherwise, we are listening to the echo of our own voices, and the god we worship is only a projection of ourselves.

Living under the lordship of Christ means that you come to His Word without preconditions. You come with a spirit that says, “What You say, we will follow, so help us God.”

We do not come to the Scriptures thinking that we’ve got it all worked out. We come to the Scriptures to find out what matters to God so that we can pursue His passion.

What 2 or 3 words would you use to describe how you come to the Word of God?