October 24

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed. (Messianic Tree of Life)

This is perhaps one of my favorite verses.  There's something about knowing that every word we read in our daily readings has been breathed by God. In the Greek, the word used here is  Theopneustos, "God-breathed"—Theo means "God" and "pneustos" means breath.  If I have an idea and say something, it's "Randi breathed", meaning unless it's a word that came from God, it's all my own thoughts. (Usually a good cue for me to be quiet).  But we read in 2 Peter 1:20-21 "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." This is why it's so important to stay in the Word, and not the world.  We need God's Word to teach us and train us so that we are equipped to live in this world. We belong to God.  His Spirit is alive and active in all of us and the same Spirit that inspired the Word to be written, will lead us into greater understanding and knowledge of God as we spend time in the word.  If we stop and think about it, Jesus, God incarnate, quoted Scripture when He was tempted in the wilderness.  The Scriptures from Deuteronomy equipped Him to fight the temptations being presented to Him by satan.  They are the breath of God, our life, and our food.  I pray we go out into the world today, filled with the very words God intended for us to depend upon as our lifeline to Him.

Randi