God’s Word

TERRY SHANAHAN, NE REGIONAL PASTOR

So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it -Isaiah 55:11
There is nothing to fill the heart like the preaching of the word. When God’s word is preached, lives are changed. It does not return empty and it does achieve the purpose for which He sent it.

Sometimes when I visit a church I bring the message. And it is my responsibility to rightly divide the word of God. An awesome responsibility. Other times when I visit a church I sit under the called pastor, and I receive the word of God. In both situations, I am changed.

In our churches, I have the privilege of hearing the word preached in diverse settings, different size churches, and different styles of worship. But every sermon is based on the word of God and has the ability to change lives and not return void.
After the service ends we often gather in the basement or parlor with coffee and snacks. As I mingle with the parishioners of any given church I often ask how the word of God has spoken to them that day.

After hearing a sermon on the widow’s mite, I spoke with a women once who heard God say, “with your limited means you can do something great for the kingdom”. She began a ministry of pennies for missions which became a great ministry for that church.
I listened to an 87 year old woman tell me how the Lord had used the sermon to break her heart and call her into his kingdom. Praise God!

My wife spoke with a women who heard me preach on I Thessalonians 1 and the witness that the early church had, and she was led to begin a ministry to the hopeless and helpless in her community. God’s purpose came to be.

I frequently speak with people in churches who tell me their conversion stories. I am always so touched when they tell me they came to the Lord by reading the Bible or hearing it preached or seeing it lived out. This is happening in these times and we can rejoice.

As Pastor Paul Asbury of the Sherman Church once wrote in his newsletter, “there is no substitution for being part of a worshipping body of followers of Jesus who together hear God’s word with the intention to put what they hear into action.” He quotes Romans 10:17 “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
God’s word is being preached and it is powerful and effective as our Statement of Faith affirms.

“We believe the Bible consisting of the Old and New Testament,
to be the only inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative
Word of God written.”