I often wonder about the door to door salesman who tries to demonstrate his product and then it doesn’t work right. I once was told of a lady who lived in the country and a vacuum cleaner salesman came by with a high pressure sales pitch. He said, “Lady, I’ve got the greatest product you’ve ever seen. This vacuum cleaner will eat up everything. In fact, if I don’t control it, it will suck up your carpet.” Before she could say anything, he said, “Lady, I want to give you a demonstration.” He immediately went to the fireplace and threw some of the ashes in the middle of the carpet. He also had a bag of stuff which he dumped on the carpet. Then he said, “I want you to watch it suck every bit of that up.” Well, the woman just stood aghast. Finally, he said to her, “Lady, if it doesn’t suck up every bit of this, I’ll eat it all with a spoon.” She looked him right in the eyes and said, “Well, sir, start eating because we ain’t got no electricity.”

It’s a real problem when you get caught in a situation where your product doesn’t work. But that never happens with the Bible, it’s always effective, it always does exactly what it says it will do. That’s a tremendous reality about the Scriptures.

In 1 Thessalonians 1:5 we see a great verse about the effectiveness of the Scriptures. “…for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” In other words, when you hear the Word of God, it isn’t just words. When the Word goes forth it has power; it is powered by the Holy Spirit and we have the assurance that it will do what it says.

The Elders of MCC thought the effectiveness and power of scripture in our lives to be a major consideration as to why as a congregation we would commit to memorizing a passage of Scripture each week. We refer to this as our “Transformation Verse” because we firmly believe in the effectiveness of the Scriptures to transform or change our lives as we bury its truth deep into our minds and souls. The task of memorization is not an easy task for many and especially me at this stage of my life, but the genuine desire to be changed into the likeness of our Savior should be the internal drive that challenges us to read the Transformation Verse for the week, re-read it, repeat it out loud, say a few words of the passage out loud as we look away from the text, repeat, re-read, say a few more words while looking away, repeating this process until we “own it”. “…for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

It is not the technique of successful memorization that I want you to take away from this blog. There are several good ones; you just need to find one that works best for you. It is how life changing the Word of God will be for you when you take God for His word. He will unleash His power in your life, as the 1 Thessalonians passage teaches, to equip you to face your life circumstance with an assurance that He has set a plan for your life to be strengthened and encouraged in a manner that can only honor His Name. Unlike the lady in our story above, you will never be caught without electricity because God will always demonstrate His omnipotence to you through His Word – the Bible.

Its summer and vacations have kicked in and for many this physical rest is very much needed but it is a dangerous thing not to stand guard over our hearts by taking a spiritual vacation from allowing God’s Word to change us through its power. I am going to make a new commitment to treasure His Word in my heart each week. I want to experience what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”

Will you join me?

In His Grace,
Pastor Jim