God's Word Is Always Fresh, Exiting, And Worth Repeating!

A Hollywood actor was once asked if he had become tired of the same old questions from his fans. His reply was, “I really haven’t, because even if it’s the thousandth time I’ve been asked a question, it’s the first time the person asking it has ever heard the answer.”

And so it is with the preaching and teaching of God’s word. No matter how many times this writer preaches or teaches from the Bible, there’s always someone present who hasn’t heard it presented in exactly the same way. And there are many more individuals who have heard the material before but may have forgotten, or have stored the information in one of the filing cabinets of their mind and haven’t taken it out again recently. If we have never heard a point of Scripture taught before, or if we just don’t recall hearing it, it may be “old” to someone else, but it’s “new” to us.

Even though we may have read the Bible through from beginning to end several times — when we study any portion of it, we gain more knowledge of certain passages that help us to better grasp the meaning of others. Which is why we can never exhaust the study possibilities of the Scriptures.

We should be a different person reading the Bible today than we were the last time we picked it up — even if that last time was as recently as yesterday. We have had new experiences since then — we know things now we did not  know before — we’re in a position to view the inspired writings from another, different perspective. Like the mercies of God, the Scriptures are “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23) — even though the Lord has not changed a word in twenty centuries (Hebrews 13:8).

As learned as he was, even the apostle Paul was a student of the Word to the end when he wrote in his final letter to Timothy: “Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come — and the books, especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). Beloved, the word of God is a living and active document (Hebrews 4:12) — no matter if it’s read for the first time or the thousandth time. No matter what we’re studying from God’s book, we’ll find in its pages answers we’re seeing for the very first time.

This is what keeps God’s word ever so fresh, exciting, and worth repeating over and over again. May God richly bless us as we continue to study and teach His word to others (2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 2:1-2).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets