10With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!11Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You!12Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes!13With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth.14I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.15I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
God desires for us to come to Him and devote our lives to Him with our whole heart. If we hide God's Word in our hearts, i.e., we study and meditate on His truth, considering how we can apply it to our lives, then we can live our lives in greater conformity to His will. We respond to God's Word not only with rejoicing, but with declaration - God's Word can shape our speech and our action. We can be challenged to make His truth a priority in our lives.
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According to Ephesians 4, in our path to spiritual growth, as we are equipped to do the work of ministry, we have these admonitions from verses 15 and 16:
15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
This is one of the most significant weekends in the entire NFL seasons - the top 2 seeds in each conference are in action against the survivors of what has now been dubbed "Wild Card Weekend." Actually, only one wild card actually won last weekend, the Baltimore Ravens, but I digress.
During the Christmas season, there were 7 NFL players who participated in an effort to spread God's Word in a very unique way. It was called the 2014 Holiday Bible Giveaway.
According to an article on the Christian Today website, the initiative of the organization Athletes for Charity, which is now on its third year, gave away 500 premium Tyndale study Bibles to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook followers of the football players.
The article includes a quote by Athletes for Charity president Cathleen Laporte to The Christian Post. She said, "We're using our social media as a platform to share the word of God and to gift the greatest gift, a Bible...We're able to spread the word far more quickly than by just physically speaking."
The participating players were Don Carey and Andre Fluellen of the Detroit Lions, Ryan Lindley of the Arizona Cardinals, Kawann Short of the Carolina Panthers, Kevin Pamphile and Alterraun Verner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Reggie Walker of the San Diego Chargers.
Carey, who heads Don Carey International Ministries with his wife, posed trivia questions to generate interest. Walker, on the other hand, merely asked his fans to tweet #HolidayBibleGiveaway on his birthday.
Verner, who was one of the first NFL players to take part in the Athletes for Charity project, asked his followers to share their favorite biblical passages before he randomly selected 25 winners.
So, be inspired by these stories of NFL players who are devoted to sharing God's Word. And, there are others who allow their faith to inform and impact the way that they live.
I think we can be challenged today to think about how we spread God's Word. These players were intentional about partnering with this organization to connect with people to give away Bibles, and even in the process, followers of these NFL players were exposed to seeds of truth.
So, first of all, we can check our hearts and make sure that we are devoted to God's Word. Do we regard the truth of Scriptures as merely suggestions for good living, principles that we choose to follow or not? Or do we view the Word of God as living and active, more than just a playbook, but truth that gives us life, that brings us into conformity with the nature of God and the image of Christ?
It's important that we develop a high view of Scripture and incorporate God's words into our consciousness, integrating it to the extent that it governs the way we live.
We can also think about how we are committed to spreading God's Word. I don't believe that we are called to keep it to ourselves. If God's Word is alive in us, I believe it will make a difference in our actions - the very way we approach life will change, and people will be able to see the presence of Christ in us. We spread truth through the words that we speak and by our actions. If our speech contains God's truth, it can penetrate the hearts of others and perhaps provide wisdom for them to live their lives Biblically.
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