Words, Words and More Words

On Wednesday afternoons I help work in my church library and bookstore. It's a small church and thus a small library. In fact, it's a room about 10 feet by 10 feet. Today I continued to inventory what was on the shelves.  There was one author of books for juveniles that had written 51 different volumes. I was amazed at his verbosity.  I scanned the room and saw hundreds of books scattered throughout the shelves.  I pondered briefly how many words were contained in all the books in the room. There has to be thousands of them.  It got me to thinking about the power of words.  God has given us a very powerful tool in language. 

Both the written and spoken word have vast impact upon people's lives. Proverbs 18: 20a says:  "Death and life are in the power of the tongue". James 3: 8 to 12 states about the tongue: "But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; ¹⁰ from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. ¹¹ Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh."

There are millions of books about human life. There is only one book that contain the words of eternal life. It's the Bible.  It was written not by men but God who superintended its writing.  That the Bible was inspired by God is a concept that's very difficult for the world to accept. People's  rejection doesn't mean it isn't true.  The Bible alone has the power to convict, comfort, console, and change lives forever. Hebrews 4:12 states:  ^"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."  Dr. Ryrie states in his note on this verse that: "It has the power to reach to the inmost parts of one's personality and to judge the innermost hearts."  The Word of God is mighty just like its author.  They world is full of millions and millions of words. But there is only One Word of God.  Read it sometime. It just might change your life--your eternal life that is.