The Word of the Lord Stands Forever

Posted by Jordyne

I had this thought today that it is IMPOSSIBLE for Scripture to be lost now. God promised that his word would never fade away, and he protected it from being lost even when there were not yet any manuscripts, but only the original autographs. And after that when there were just a handful of copied manuscripts, God protected his word and made sure that it was not lost.

There was once a day when we couldn’t quite see how God was preserving his word. But today, we can see exactly how he has done it and continues to accomplish it.

There are SO many copies of the Bible, not only in the original Greek and Hebrew, but in hundreds of languages all throughout the world. More copies of the Bible are printed, sold, and distributed than any other book in the history of the world.  There are not just Bibles in churches, as it once used to be, but in countless homes, bookstores, dollar stores and Wal Marts across America. There are ones in libraries and storage sheds and in the backs of closets that have not been sorted through in decades. There are old ones in antique stores and thrift stores, and museums, and private collections. There are Bibles in hospitals and printing presses and missions agencies and in the bedside drawer of countless hotel rooms. Bibles left in the trunks of cars and in glove compartments and backpacks. There are copies in schools and business offices. Bibles in shipping containers and underground churches, and Bibles buried with the dead. The numbers are in the billions.

And those are just the complete Bibles….we have said nothing of Scripture that has been quoted in other books. Even if SOMEHOW all of the whole Bibles (or those sad New Testament + Psalms combos) were lost forever, we could reconstruct every single word of Scripture (and put it in the right order) by using books that have quoted even just one passage of Scripture. Not just books, but newspapers, tracts and magazines as well.

And if THAT weren’t enough…. let’s just say that somehow...SOMEHOW every single Bible and every single publication that ever quoted Scripture in any language was wiped off the face of the earth. What would we do?

Well then there’s the handwritten copies.  Portions of the Bible found in journals written by saints, church folk, and seekers alike. Memory verses carefully written on index cards. Encouraging passages mailed in letters. Words of truth and hope scribbled on fragments of scratch paper in a moment of desperate need for something to cling to.

And what if by some unimaginable, absurd, and ridiculously impossible chance EVERY.SINGLE physical copy of the Bible, whether complete or partial disappeared from the Earth? Where would we go to find his Word?

You guessed it. The Internet. 

You can find digital copies in the form of ebooks and apps and a variety of Bible websites such as Bible.com or Bible Gateway. But you can also find it on church websites, and websites of missions organizations. There is a New Testament scholar who is working on making a digital copy of every single ancient New Testament manuscript we have. You can find passages of Scripture on blogs, people’s Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Tumblr. You can find passages of Scripture decoratively painted and printed and hand-lettered on any number of Pinterest boards or Etsy shops. And each and every one of these digital forms has been transmitted and retransmitted so many times, our brains cannot conceive of the number. The only way to get rid of them all would be to get rid of the Internet entirely or all electricity and technology, like in that TV show Revolution. 

And what if somehow that really did happen? Well then, may I direct your attention again to the immeasurable wealth of physical copies mentioned above.

It would seem that Satan has suffered a crushing defeat!
There is absolutely no way that the enemy can take God’s word away from humanity.

Unless...

Unless he can convince us that the Bible can’t be trusted, that it’s been corrupted. Or that it has no relevance or power to speak into our lives. 

Unless he can convince us that it’s not worth our time to study it, or simply that we are too busy to read its pages.

If he can convince us of that….

Well if he can convince us of that, then all the copies and access in the world wouldn’t matter a bit, would they?

Maybe the defeat wasn’t so crushing after all.

What Soothes Your Fears?

Posted by Jordyne 

I had this awesome moment with Jesus today that I wanted to share with you all. I just sent an email to a friend telling her this story, and right after I sent it I thought maybe it was something you would benefit from hearing:

God is so good, and he loves us a ridiculous amount. Simple truths, yes, but underneath them are oceans.

For the past couple weeks or so, I have been meditating on 1st John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (ESV)

​

Well, this morning, God used it so powerfully, it carried me through the rest of my day. I was journaling about all the fears I have right now. 

On an unrelated note, for the past few days I have been thinking about the events of the youth camp I took my teens to last summer and what God showed me there. 

Anyways, I'm kinda scatter-brained and tend to change direction without any notice (That’s why Sarah and Rachel gave me the nickname Whiplash in college), so in the middle of my current journal entry, I decided to go back and read the entry from 7 months ago. I can't even remember why I thought I had to read it right then.  And what do you think I found? Take a look; there it is, bracketed in green stars:

Perfect love casts out all fear. His presence will sooth your fears like nothing else in the world can.

I just stared dumbly at it as the presence of God filled the space around me. He led me back to this page right as I was in the middle of talking to Him about how much fear I had. It was as if I had written every single word just for where I’m at right now. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I had no recollection of writing about fear, or that the lesson was on fear (thank you, Phil M.). I just remembered having a powerful encounter with God that week, and wanted to remember the details. With hungry eyes, I kept reading:

It says "3 things" but my attention span apparently didn't get past the 1st one.

His timing is so perfect, isn't it? He knew as I wrote those words down that day precisely what I would need them for. He woos more than any husband ever could. He is more to me than 10 husbands (is that weird to say? Like how Elkanah frequently asked his wife, Hannah if he wasn't worth more than 10 sons to her? I don’t know. It makes sense in my head.)

So, I'm done with fear. Yes, most likely, fear is something we will always have to fight. But Jesus is the solution to my fears, and he is the solution to yours. The only solution.