Saturate Me

Good morning. It’s Friday!! October 23, 2015.

Today’s word of the day, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is obmurmuration. This means, “The action or an instance of complaining or criticizing.”

Today is Mole Day. And even though there is a picture of one of those rather disturbing-looking animals on the page for the day, it has nothing to do with that kind of mole. It also does not refer to the person in your organization who is leaking secrets. “Mole Day is celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. It celebrates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry.” I vaguely remember something about mole from my chemistry class in high school. I’m relatively certain that I never quite understood it.

Christi’s Huddle group didn’t meet last night. They had planned to go to some sporting event to watch the daughter of one of the ladies dance with her dance team, but the event got rained out. I’m not sure if the sporting event got rained out, or just the dance team. Either way, they didn’t got. Just as well, because Christi was at the doctor’s office with Stephanie, to get Stephanie’s meds refilled. The appointment was scheduled for 6:00 PM, and the plan was that one or both of us would take her. We left work at approximately the same time, but my traffic turned out to be much worse, so Christi had to take her to the appointment. So I went straight to Subway and Sonic before going home, and picked up our dinner. They got home just minutes after I did.

It’s been raining steadily for over 12 hours, now. It’s rather strange. We haven’t gotten a lot of rain since the massive flooding from the Spring. We’re now in flood watch mode for the rest of the weekend. Some reports say that we may get as much as four inches over the weekend.

Tonight, the Royals and Blue Jays will play in Kansas City for game six of the ALCS. I’m hoping that KC can put it away tonight.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From Solid Joys)

Today’s reading is “God’s Final, Decisive Word.”

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Hebrews 1:1-2

“These last days . . .” We have been living in “the last days” since Christ came on the scene.

The point that the writer of Hebrews is making is that “The Word that God spoke by his Son is the decisive Word.” There will be no greater word, no “replacement word.” The living Word of God is the “person of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, and the work of Jesus.”

What do I say when I complain that I’m not really hearing the Word of God? “Am I really saying that I have exhausted this final decisive Word revealed to me so fully in the New Testament? Have I really exhausted this Word?” Have I made it so much a part of me that it shapes everything about my life?

“Or have I treated it lightly — skimmed it like a newspaper, dipped in like a taste-tester — and then decided I wanted something different, something more?” Along with John Piper, I say, “This is what I fear I am guilty of more than I wish to admit.”

“God is calling us to hear his final, decisive Word — to meditate on it and study it and memorize it and linger over it and soak in it until it saturates us to the center of our being.”

This is something that God impressed upon me, recently. Have I done anything about it? I did start trying to read through the Bible on a schedule again. I hadn’t done that in quite some time. But that plan drifted by the wayside. I’m still struggling with how to get more of God’s Word into my life on a regular basis. A few verses of Psalms in the morning, and a few isolated verses in the other readings I do just isn’t enough.

Father, draw me deeper into your Word, both the written Word, and the living Word, which is Jesus. Make me immerse myself into it, and soak in it until it saturates me, permeates me, and shapes every breath that I take.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Grace and peace, friends.