User Log On
Rossford UMC
To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known
Gallery

  • EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE! 

    10:30 am Worship

  •  

     

    Wednesday, November 20, 2024

    Psalm 119: 103

    103 How sweet are your words to my taste! They are sweeter than honey to my mouth.

     

    Consider the power of language. Words. They live longer than humans and are more powerful. We all treasure some words from earlier generations, and some of the language we embrace has survived for thousands of years. It shapes and forms us.

    I learned long ago about two types of poets. Some poets play with images, describe scenes right in front of their face, and draw great lessons from those scenes. Robert Frost, describing a sleigh ride in a snowy night and a road junction. One must choose one path or the other. Other poets similarly use the images before their faces, but they also draw on work from others. Thus, one sees, particularly among biblical poets, the same image repeated, drawn out with ever-new lessons. They expand, re-orient, and make the earlier lesson deeper and more profound.

    All this happens through the miracle of language.

    We all do this all the time without even thinking about it. People grab onto biblical images and use them in ever-new ways to guide them through life. Soon, the images become incredibly complex because of the centuries of accumulated use and abuse. I say abuse because it is not unthinkable for someone to twist a new and distorted meaning from the word.

    The word. It’s a biblical image. Does it mean the Bible? Or is it Jesus? And how do I take the word into my being and allow it to shape my being? Important questions. Questions that have the power to shape or reshape one’s life.

    Long ago, when I was a child, someone asked me to read aloud at worship. I did it well and was asked to repeat the process over a long period of time. I was too young to truly understand the stories and lessons I read.

    All I know is this. The word was planted in my heart, and it bore fruit.

    That’s why I look at my Bible every day. Ponder Jesus every day. I seek every opportunity to allow the Word to be re-implanted in my being.

    Thank you, God, for your Word.

     

    Hymn of the day: Breathe. Online at Rossford UMC - Media.

     

    Rev. Lawrence Keeler