“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:16-17

Is the word of Christ dwelling richly in you? About this time every year, that commitment you made January 1st to read the Bible through, or at least to read the Bible daily begins to hit it first snags. Life gets busy. The situations you’re facing get hard. You get sick. Or maybe you just get lazy. But for whatever reason, you put God’s word aside and try to live on the fumes of truth you get from listening to a sermon or podcast. If that’s you, let me encourage you once more to not give up! There’s no prize or penalty for the way you keep a Bible reading plan. But there is unmistakable benefit from keeping God’s word dwelling within your heart by reading, thinking, meditating, singing, memorizing, and discussing God’s word. If things have gotten busy and you’ve let His Word slip out of your hand for a time, that’s OK. There is a simple solution. As soon as you realize what’s happened, pick it up again. The goal is not just to read a certain number of pages. The goal is to let God’s word get into to life so that it shapes your mind, focuses your attention and affection on Christ, teaches you Who He is and what He requires as it works its way into your soul to mold and shape the whole of your life into a life like His.

Another question we can ask is, Is the word of Christ dwelling richly among us? Paul wrote these words to a church full of people. In fact, his exhortation is in the plural, “Let the Word dwell richly among ya’ll.” His point being that such growth in grace through the word is not a solo project. It is something we all participate in together, as we seek to know, live and apply God’s word to our the life we live together as one body in Christ!

May His word indeed be dwelling in us with all richness!

Pastor S. Scott Lee