Cody Mixon | Middle School Pastor, FBC Loganville
"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
Hebrews 4:12-13
"Oh Boy! Don't we just love it when a plan comes together!" my high school football coach always shouted when we finally executed a play the way it was designed.
He was a first-year coach trying to introduce a new playbook, so there was understandably something special for him when eleven teenage boys did exactly what he had taught them. It's especially impressive knowing these boys had just spent seven hours in a classroom after waking up as early as 5 a.m. and had now been at practice for another two hours. Not to mention their attention had probably shifted to playing video games, doing homework, or trying to figure out how they were going to afford the McDonald's dinner with their girlfriends, who were patiently waiting for practice to end.
This may have been a larger task than we all gave Coach credit for, as he was trying to celebrate with us for finally executing the simple play.
Ten years later, there are times now as a pastor when I wonder if God exclaims from His throne, "OH! Atta way, Church, don't we just love when a plan comes together!"
While we work so hard to understand the simple things of God, we get distracted by all the things around us. There has to be at least a couple of things that we execute well and get Him excited, right? When we apply the Word of God to our lives in a way that aligns with His design for humanity; when we understand the power of the gospel and get to see it at work; when we share with someone at work for the first time; when we feel the tug of the Holy Spirit moving us to pray for a distant family member or friend, and we lean into it with obedience instead of being too shy or scared; or maybe it's just in the silence of your morning devotion where a breakthrough of understanding brings the realities of Scripture to life in your heart.
I can't help but think these little moments excite our Heavenly Father and His Son, who is now seated next to Him. Who knows? Maybe their excitement slips out with a little shout similar to my football coach: "Atta kid! That's exactly the way I designed that to work!"
So, the question for the believer is: How can we best put ourselves in position to consistently live by this design?
Below, I have four ways that God's Word can truly come to life for you and will have Him shouting with excitement.
Understanding the Context and Realities of Scripture
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Have you found yourself reading the Bible and being absolutely confused at what the author is even talking about? Yeah, believe it or not, me too!
Understanding the Bible takes some work at times, because it was not originally written to a modern American audience. Instead, it was mostly written to an ancient Middle Eastern culture. There are some major differences in the way they lived life, as well as understood religion and philosophical thought.
This means we need to at least have a basic understanding of ordinary life to comprehend some of the phrases, symbolisms, parables, and even just the settings of the stories and letters we are reading and pulling Truth from. If we do not have these understandings, we will be innocently misinterpreting God's Word and, therefore, failing to execute how He has designed us to live.
A couple of key questions to ask when reading your Bible are:
Correctly and Practically Applying God's Word to Our Lives
"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace."
Colossians 1:3-6
Reading the Bible is great; understanding the Bible is even better. But it is very possible for the Bible to only come alive in our minds and stay in our imagination. The Bible isn't intended to just remain as an ancient story for us to be aware of and admire—the Bible is intended to be interacted with. God's intention for us is that His Word would create a life change for those who encounter it. Just as if we met Jesus face to face, like those who were healed, those who watched Him do miracles, or those who had the privilege of hearing Him teach the crowds.
I'm fully convinced God gets most excited when we begin to embody the teachings found in the Bible or to share the same heart that He has in understanding what the Word is teaching. It is when we begin to allow the Word of God to change our own lifestyles, thought processes, and everyday decisions that He gets excited about our lives aligning with His original design.
In what areas of your life are you not aligned with God's design?
Maybe it's in the way you treat people? The things that consume your mind? Your relationship to food? A lack of rest? Or maybe it is simply your understanding of why you are here on earth? Maybe you need to re-evaluate why you work that job or what your goals are in your career path. Perhaps it's the way you are parenting. Maybe your focus is too heavy on sports or school performances instead of what kind of people your children are becoming.
Allowing the Word of God to live through you is one of the coolest ways we can see God's Word come to life in a very real and tangible way.
The Power in Proclaiming the Story of the Jesus
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."
Romans 1:16
The Bible speaks very clearly about the power within the story of the gospel. So, arguably, the most obvious way to bring the Word of God to life is by speaking it yourself. That can look like personally memorizing Scripture to meditate on, by repeating it in private over and over again until you have "hidden (His) word in (your) heart, so that (you) may not sin against (God)" (Psalm 119:11). You could be moved to share the gospel to an individual God has placed on your mind who may need to meet Jesus for the first time. Or maybe God is calling you to speak to a group of people—whether that's with coworkers, classmates, or family members; or maybe you are somebody who has a platform with many listening to you for leadership and guidance, so God is asking you to proclaim the Word from that platform.
You know what God is leading you to do better than I do, but if you already have an understanding of Scripture, and you are living according to the Word, then you just might be the person who needs to be challenged to share it with someone else.
Sharing the gospel with someone does not always look like teaching, or even telling Bible stories—sometimes it can just be asking a tough question to a coworker about their religious beliefs or understanding of who Jesus is. This may lead you to an opportunity to share your own story of hearing about Jesus and your testimony of salvation—the proof that God's Word is ALIVE and ACTIVE. What a powerful proof that God is real—your own experience!
Don't allow the fear of what might happen stop you from experiencing the Word of God come to life!
The Power of Walking in Step with the Holy Spirit
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."
Galatians 5:16-17
The toughest, yet arguably the most rewarding, way on this list to see the Word of God come to life is by walking in step with the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5, the author Paul explains how our desires do not usually align with the desires of God. However, by God's grace, he has left us a helper to lead, guide, and influence us to align our minds and hearts with God's.
Well, the last thing to align with God after our hearts and minds is our actions. Learning to apply God's teaching to our lives is a huge step, but one of the main teachings of the Bible is that we are broken people desperately in need of a Savior, because our natural instinct is to oppose God and the ways He would have us live. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into play.
While we are powerless in becoming a better person, God is not. The Holy Spirit reveals to us our shortcomings, so that we can first confess them and then repent and turn away from those things. The last step for us is to be changed by God's grace and forgiveness. Through the Holy Spirit, we begin to correct these habits so that we become more and more like Jesus.
This is what freedom in Christ looks like: to be free of the pressure to completely obey all of God's commands and instead seek to share a heart with God. This will flesh out like the list of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5:22-23: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." If we are walking in step with the Holy Spirit, then even in the midst of chaos, we will produce reactions that fall more in line with the Fruit of the Spirit opposed to our natural reactions like anger, jealousy, fear, evil desires, stubbornness, or selfishness.
Living like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is a slow process that takes a lot of time, but when we allow the Word of God to control our lives instead of our own desires, we will begin to see that Word come to life not only in our lives but through it!
Conclusion
In a culture that is enamored with bringing ideas, stories, and books to life by creating movies, video games, social media posts, amusement parks, and all kinds of other creative avenues, what is more powerful than God coming to life through his own creation? You!
It's one thing to have stories in Scripture come to life by understanding context and culture, like smelling the fish and bread multiplying as you hear the disciples' thin-laced sandals flop against the dry desert rock underneath their feet while Jesus' voice explodes off of the rocks like an amplified speaker during the feeding of the thousands.
But to have Jesus' teachings change your own life by the power of the Holy Spirit is a whole other experience, which is still incomparable to the joy you will experience when those teachings end up radically changing the life of someone else near you.
The Word of God coming to life among us is the desire of God's heart—don't you share that desire with Him?
We definitely do here at FBC Loganville. If you desire to join other believers in watching God's Word come to life, we'd love to play a part in walking that journey with you.
Join us for a service or a group this week! Find your group at fbcloganville.org/groups.
Hebrews 4:12-13
"Oh Boy! Don't we just love it when a plan comes together!" my high school football coach always shouted when we finally executed a play the way it was designed.
He was a first-year coach trying to introduce a new playbook, so there was understandably something special for him when eleven teenage boys did exactly what he had taught them. It's especially impressive knowing these boys had just spent seven hours in a classroom after waking up as early as 5 a.m. and had now been at practice for another two hours. Not to mention their attention had probably shifted to playing video games, doing homework, or trying to figure out how they were going to afford the McDonald's dinner with their girlfriends, who were patiently waiting for practice to end.
This may have been a larger task than we all gave Coach credit for, as he was trying to celebrate with us for finally executing the simple play.
Ten years later, there are times now as a pastor when I wonder if God exclaims from His throne, "OH! Atta way, Church, don't we just love when a plan comes together!"
While we work so hard to understand the simple things of God, we get distracted by all the things around us. There has to be at least a couple of things that we execute well and get Him excited, right? When we apply the Word of God to our lives in a way that aligns with His design for humanity; when we understand the power of the gospel and get to see it at work; when we share with someone at work for the first time; when we feel the tug of the Holy Spirit moving us to pray for a distant family member or friend, and we lean into it with obedience instead of being too shy or scared; or maybe it's just in the silence of your morning devotion where a breakthrough of understanding brings the realities of Scripture to life in your heart.
I can't help but think these little moments excite our Heavenly Father and His Son, who is now seated next to Him. Who knows? Maybe their excitement slips out with a little shout similar to my football coach: "Atta kid! That's exactly the way I designed that to work!"
So, the question for the believer is: How can we best put ourselves in position to consistently live by this design?
Below, I have four ways that God's Word can truly come to life for you and will have Him shouting with excitement.
Understanding the Context and Realities of Scripture
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Have you found yourself reading the Bible and being absolutely confused at what the author is even talking about? Yeah, believe it or not, me too!
Understanding the Bible takes some work at times, because it was not originally written to a modern American audience. Instead, it was mostly written to an ancient Middle Eastern culture. There are some major differences in the way they lived life, as well as understood religion and philosophical thought.
This means we need to at least have a basic understanding of ordinary life to comprehend some of the phrases, symbolisms, parables, and even just the settings of the stories and letters we are reading and pulling Truth from. If we do not have these understandings, we will be innocently misinterpreting God's Word and, therefore, failing to execute how He has designed us to live.
A couple of key questions to ask when reading your Bible are:
- Who is writing this? While Scripture was inspired by God, He didn't literally pick up a pen and start writing. He used people to write whatever the Holy Spirit moved them to record, whether that was from what they witnessed themselves or needed to write in order to encourage, inform, and challenge others.
- Who is this author writing to? Most of the books recorded in Scripture are written to a group of people, whether that is to tell of what God has done, to warn what God will do, or to inform people through a letter of the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah! So, knowing who the original intended audience is will bring some helpful understanding of the text.
- Why is the author writing? In order to fully comprehend and correctly pull Truth from the Bible, we need to be able to see not only the author's heart in writing, but also God's purpose in having that book of the Bible written. What does God want to do in the lives of those receiving this in real time?
- What can I learn from this? One of the biggest mistakes we as Bible-readers can make is to assume the text was written directly to us! There are many places where the author is given real time practical implications of a Truth for the culture of the moment, but as we read it today with no understanding of their cultural context, it can be very confusing. Instead, when we understand the realities of the context, we can better understand the Truth being taught to the original audience that may apply differently to us today.
Correctly and Practically Applying God's Word to Our Lives
"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace."
Colossians 1:3-6
Reading the Bible is great; understanding the Bible is even better. But it is very possible for the Bible to only come alive in our minds and stay in our imagination. The Bible isn't intended to just remain as an ancient story for us to be aware of and admire—the Bible is intended to be interacted with. God's intention for us is that His Word would create a life change for those who encounter it. Just as if we met Jesus face to face, like those who were healed, those who watched Him do miracles, or those who had the privilege of hearing Him teach the crowds.
I'm fully convinced God gets most excited when we begin to embody the teachings found in the Bible or to share the same heart that He has in understanding what the Word is teaching. It is when we begin to allow the Word of God to change our own lifestyles, thought processes, and everyday decisions that He gets excited about our lives aligning with His original design.
In what areas of your life are you not aligned with God's design?
Maybe it's in the way you treat people? The things that consume your mind? Your relationship to food? A lack of rest? Or maybe it is simply your understanding of why you are here on earth? Maybe you need to re-evaluate why you work that job or what your goals are in your career path. Perhaps it's the way you are parenting. Maybe your focus is too heavy on sports or school performances instead of what kind of people your children are becoming.
Allowing the Word of God to live through you is one of the coolest ways we can see God's Word come to life in a very real and tangible way.
The Power in Proclaiming the Story of the Jesus
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile."
Romans 1:16
The Bible speaks very clearly about the power within the story of the gospel. So, arguably, the most obvious way to bring the Word of God to life is by speaking it yourself. That can look like personally memorizing Scripture to meditate on, by repeating it in private over and over again until you have "hidden (His) word in (your) heart, so that (you) may not sin against (God)" (Psalm 119:11). You could be moved to share the gospel to an individual God has placed on your mind who may need to meet Jesus for the first time. Or maybe God is calling you to speak to a group of people—whether that's with coworkers, classmates, or family members; or maybe you are somebody who has a platform with many listening to you for leadership and guidance, so God is asking you to proclaim the Word from that platform.
You know what God is leading you to do better than I do, but if you already have an understanding of Scripture, and you are living according to the Word, then you just might be the person who needs to be challenged to share it with someone else.
Sharing the gospel with someone does not always look like teaching, or even telling Bible stories—sometimes it can just be asking a tough question to a coworker about their religious beliefs or understanding of who Jesus is. This may lead you to an opportunity to share your own story of hearing about Jesus and your testimony of salvation—the proof that God's Word is ALIVE and ACTIVE. What a powerful proof that God is real—your own experience!
Don't allow the fear of what might happen stop you from experiencing the Word of God come to life!
The Power of Walking in Step with the Holy Spirit
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."
Galatians 5:16-17
The toughest, yet arguably the most rewarding, way on this list to see the Word of God come to life is by walking in step with the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5, the author Paul explains how our desires do not usually align with the desires of God. However, by God's grace, he has left us a helper to lead, guide, and influence us to align our minds and hearts with God's.
Well, the last thing to align with God after our hearts and minds is our actions. Learning to apply God's teaching to our lives is a huge step, but one of the main teachings of the Bible is that we are broken people desperately in need of a Savior, because our natural instinct is to oppose God and the ways He would have us live. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into play.
While we are powerless in becoming a better person, God is not. The Holy Spirit reveals to us our shortcomings, so that we can first confess them and then repent and turn away from those things. The last step for us is to be changed by God's grace and forgiveness. Through the Holy Spirit, we begin to correct these habits so that we become more and more like Jesus.
This is what freedom in Christ looks like: to be free of the pressure to completely obey all of God's commands and instead seek to share a heart with God. This will flesh out like the list of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5:22-23: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." If we are walking in step with the Holy Spirit, then even in the midst of chaos, we will produce reactions that fall more in line with the Fruit of the Spirit opposed to our natural reactions like anger, jealousy, fear, evil desires, stubbornness, or selfishness.
Living like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is a slow process that takes a lot of time, but when we allow the Word of God to control our lives instead of our own desires, we will begin to see that Word come to life not only in our lives but through it!
Conclusion
In a culture that is enamored with bringing ideas, stories, and books to life by creating movies, video games, social media posts, amusement parks, and all kinds of other creative avenues, what is more powerful than God coming to life through his own creation? You!
It's one thing to have stories in Scripture come to life by understanding context and culture, like smelling the fish and bread multiplying as you hear the disciples' thin-laced sandals flop against the dry desert rock underneath their feet while Jesus' voice explodes off of the rocks like an amplified speaker during the feeding of the thousands.
But to have Jesus' teachings change your own life by the power of the Holy Spirit is a whole other experience, which is still incomparable to the joy you will experience when those teachings end up radically changing the life of someone else near you.
The Word of God coming to life among us is the desire of God's heart—don't you share that desire with Him?
We definitely do here at FBC Loganville. If you desire to join other believers in watching God's Word come to life, we'd love to play a part in walking that journey with you.
Join us for a service or a group this week! Find your group at fbcloganville.org/groups.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cody Mixon
Cody is the middle school pastor at FBC Loganville where he has served since graduating high school in 2016. His heart is to lead and empower the next generation to engage the world with the Word of God. Cody loves the Atlanta Braves, fantasy football, and deep, thought-provoking conversations on literally anything.