It Starts with the Word

​Church and ministry are my deal. At 16 God planted a seed in my heart that grew into a full-time ministry calling—for better or for worse. As for the worse, few professions acutely divulge the depravity of human nature more than ministry.  As for the best, few professions provide a front-row seat to watch God’s grace reach through the chaos and grip a life for Jesus.
 
That’s why I stick around. For all the hours of depression, disappointment, and migraines, moments sprout that reveal glimpses of His glory—making it all worth it.
 
Glimpses of His glory drive my passion for ministry and shape my personal mission statement, “To Know Him and Make Him Known.” Once you see a glimpse of His glory, you’re hooked. Totally, completely, and mesmerizingly hooked. No going, looking, or running back. We often try, but His grace proves stronger.
 
Glimpses of glory come in many shapes and sizes, but one common thread seen in every one of them is the window through which they are seen—the Word. We cannot experience a glimpse of His glory without peering through the window of His Word.
 
But wait a minute! What about through prayer? Or gazing at a marvelous scene of nature? Surely windows other than His Word exist to see a glimpse of His glory! Not really and here’s why. Glimpse experiences occur through many venues, but every one of them point to truth; and truth is His Word. Prayer is a natural human impulse (even atheists find a prayer on their lips in a crisis!), but we don’t know how to pray or Who we’re praying to without Scripture.
 
Nature in all its majesty is what we call “natural revelation.” Romans 1 states clearly that “since the creation of this world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, begin understood through what has been made, so that they [i.e. WE] are without excuse.” The glory of nature reveals aspects of God’s power and creativity, but it alone cannot drive us to the cross. Without Scripture, we may figure out that someone or something created the earth, but we don’t know who it was, how it happened, or for what purpose it was created.
 
Bottom line is we can’t get intimate with God—experience glimpses of His glory—without getting intimate with the Word. We cannot make Him known to others without first knowing Him ourselves. All of our knowledge of Him comes either directly or indirectly from the Word.
 
Get into it. Get intimate with it and let it be the window through which you view everything and everyone around you!