When the Israelites were on the brink of entering into the land promised to them, their new leader Joshua was told by God to be ‘strong and courageous’ as they invaded. However the strategy that followed was not primarily based on what you might immediately think of. Their true strength was actually to be gained from close attention to God’s words.
“Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the left or to the right… do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:7-8).
It could be argued that these travelling tribes of Israel were being asked to do something far easier than what God asks of us today. In pre-technological times day-to-day living was probably a lot simpler in many ways. No doubt they had their own distractions that tempted them to turn away from God’s words that Moses had written down for the priests to use, yet they weren’t bombarded with today’s information-overloaded, electronic society.
I’m not criticising modern technology. Being able to read emails, get the latest sports news, download music, order food, transfer money, hold business conversations, check the five-day weather forecast... all at the press of a few buttons can be very helpful. But the danger of so much technological capability is that our lives are easily consumed by so many devices, we then place far too much meaning in them and they become a substitute for studying, meditating and listening to Scripture for our spiritual growth.
I recently discovered wordles. Wordles are a computer tool that help you to reflect carefully on the words of a document. They are sometimes used in schools so I’m told. The words from a document are submitted to the internet wordle generator (e.g., www.wordle.net) and the image it produces on the computer screen gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source document. Creating wordles is also a fun exercise because you can change the colour, layout and design of the image it produces for you.
In this edition of the Newsletter you will find two examples of wordles. In the first one I have taken the words of our New Year Covenant declaration from the morning service of Sunday 16th January; in the second I have taken the entire text of the book of James, which we are currently working through in our evening services.
Perhaps as part of your regular devotions, prayers or Bible study you may like to spend some time scanning these wordles. You may like to pick just one word, see where it takes you in your mind, reflect upon its meaning and how it applies to your spiritual growth and our church. Or how
about linking one word with another, or picking out a particular word and using it in a conversation during your day?
In the Bible God has revealed and communicated his wonderful love to us. So, like Joshua, let us pay close attention to God’s words, savour their meaning and be nourished by Scripture’s delights.
God bless you,
Andy
