Everywhere I look people are choosing a word for the new year. Of course, me being me, not just one word will do. Call me greedy but I kinda like words. Actually I loooove words. I read them. I write them. I read and write them some more. I write them in my journals. I record them on my blog. I save them on my tablet. I write them on small scraps of paper and tuck them away. Words are so important in our lives. It's the means in which we communicate. Verbally and on paper (and every other source of media these days.) Words can build us up, or tear us down. They can take us to places we may never have the opportunity to go. Curling up with a collection of words is one of my favorite things to do. Without books, without words, I would be incomplete. Words have power. Words increase our knowledge.
The words of Paul in Phillipians are the words that I have been pondering the last few days. I'm absolutely sure that it is no accident that the Lord has brought me back here again and again to read chapter 3. You see I had been reading the Joshua Code which is a fantastic little book that talks about the importance of memorizing scripture. It got me to thinking about my "word" for the year. I didn't just want to choose any word. I wanted to choose a collection of words to memorize for the year. Scripture that would be the spiritual driving force in all the days of 2014. I thought about what I wanted spiritually, the prayer I wanted the Lord to hear and answer..the deepest desire of my heart. As I laid across my bed early one morning reading his word and writing in my prayer journal, I thought I want to KNOW you Lord. And I whispered that prayer and sent it out into the universe for the holy spirit to capture and deliver to the throne room of God. Not "oida" the greek word for knowing often used in the new testament... but rather "ginosko." Oida simply means to "see, to observe." I want to "ginosko" (to know from personal involvement, to understand... often used in describing a marital relationship.) You see I think alot of us know the Lord in the oida sense. We hear about him, we recognize his name when it is spoken. We "see" him and observe him on Sundays. Sometimes on Wednesdays. We like to hang out with him when it's convienent for us and talk with him occassionally. We know him from the biblical accounts we hear from the pulpit but I'm asking myself......Do we really "KNOW" him. Do we have a personal involvement with him that manifests a "ginosko" kind of knowing? Do we know him like Paul talks about in Phillipans 3:10-11.. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
And so after much pondering I settled on that verse. I chose my word for 2014. This living "word." (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. Hebrews 4:12) I don't know about you but I need a "living" word. I need Jesus to penetrate the joints and the marrow of my body, my soul, and my spirit and divide the things that are pleasing to him and those that aren't. I need him to judge my attitude and my thoughts. I need him to come into my heart and clean house.......because I want to know Christ. I want to know him like I have never known him. I want to chase after him and whirl him around so that I can look in his face and throw myself into his loving arms with wild abandon. And I want to stay there soaking up everything I can to know him, his character and his ways..so that God willing, I can become like him.
It's funny how the Lord works all things together for good. I was watching a sermon online by David Platt New Year's Eve and it was called "Don't waste your life." The text for that sermon was none other than Phillipians Chapter 3.... Imagine that. To further solidify that the Lord is confirming the fact that I need to "know" him, he led me back there again last night. Happenstance? Coincidence? I don't think so. I had downloaded 10 free Beth Moore books for my kindle and I selected "To Live is Christ" to start on last night. I could have selected any of those ten books. Any scripture could have been included in my study. The bible does have 66 books, 1189 chapters and endless verses. Paul wrote a good portion of the new testament so it could have been any random selection of text he had penned. But no, it wasn't a random verse. It was a specific verse... Phillipians Chapter 3.....AGAIN. I could only giggle like a little girl. He knows me. He's listening and I know that it is the greatest desire of his heart as well..............that I know him.
So "ginosko" it is..and the entire chapter of Phillipians Chapter 3. That's the word I'm starting off 2014 with. What about you? What word is the Lord leading you to?
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Sharing at Imparting Grace
Sharing at Savvy Southern Style
Sharing at French County Cottage