Time With God

I was recently reading an article that said the average person spends nearly two hours each day on social media.

Two.

Hours.

There is a blessing within that: we have greater connectivity with more people and have more access to more information than ever before. But let’s not be deceived: there is also a curse that’s not far behind. We know which character from M*A*S*H or Seinfeld we would be (thanks to that Facebook quiz), we rant about our post-election reactions, we have seen multiple images of our friend’s recent trip to the Mechanical Pencil Museum*, and yet, we “don’t have time” to read God’s Word.

Something is wrong here.

I’m not an enemy of social media, so please don’t walk away with the wrong conclusions. I think it’s an incredible tool to be leveraged, and a fun way to stay connected. I have social media accounts, and I use them. But think of the amount of time you spend scrolling, the amount of time you spend refreshing your news feeds, the amount of time you spend debating, “How should I caption this photo?” so it’s the perfect combination of witty, sarcastic, sentimental, cute, inspirational – or whatever.

Think of that time.

If you’ve ever had one of those nights with friends or loved ones where your heart felt full and your face ached from laughter and you walked away from that experience thanking God for this common grace…did it ever cross your mind that you would have rather stayed home, by yourself, looking at memes all night instead? Of course not.

So picture this: the God who created the Universe has invited you into a conversational relationship with Himself. Not only did He make you, but He made it possible for you to know Him. He reconciled us to Himself while we wanted nothing to do with Him. God did all of this through Jesus, so that we might discover life in Jesus. We will never know what life was meant to look like until we are connected to the Source of life, God Himself.

I think that’s partly why Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In using this beautiful word picture, Jesus teaches us that staying connected to Him is not an optional, if-you-have-the-time sort of thing; it’s vital to our existence.

I remember Pastor Jerry saying in last year’s Worldview series, “We’ve got to stop treating our time in God’s Word like it’s a New Year’s resolution or a gym membership. We need to start treating it like water or air because it is the Word of Life that God has given to us.”

We want to resource you with every opportunity to get into God’s Word.

That’s why we’ve created a card with suggested readings which will help you read through the entire Bible in one year. Download the reading plan here. A segment of that plan will also be included in each monthly bulletin you receive. And that’s why every weekly bulletin has more suggested passages of Scripture that are thematically linked to each Sunday’s sermon.

I’m not as concerned with whether or not you use one of these provided reading plans. I’m far more concerned with encouraging and equipping you to hear God’s voice through His Word. In 2017, deepen your intimacy and connection with God the Father, because everything about life as a disciple of Jesus flows from it.

*This is not real. At least, I really hope it isn’t.