Accessing the Word of God – Sunday, December 02, 1984
Ours has been called the “Age of Information.” Indeed, the most stunning advancements of our technologies have been applied to the communication of data and ideas. We can shuttle and save numbers and words faster, farther and with greater efficiency than at any other time in the history of the world. Our data banks require such precision that we extrude recording filaments through orifices burned by laser in the face of diamonds—all to the end that we can save more, in a smaller space, and access it with greater speed.
“Access” has become the watchword of our society. We want information available to us. We want to “network,” to “be open” to as much and as many resources as possible.
But, with the sophistication of our information resources, we may have lost focus on a fundamental question: How important is the information we control?
The Apostle Paul, in a letter to the Hebrew saints, spoke of information no less accessible than our computers provide, but more powerful:
“For the word of God,” he said, “is quick, and powerful…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”1
Ultimately it is not the information in our computers that will “connect” us, that will set us free, but the information in ourselves—information that only the word and will of God can reveal.
The information that is in us, and the word that can reveal us to ourselves, is so complex that no computer can hope to control it and so simple that there is but one access. The Apostle John wrote: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth.)”2
This is the truth that our systems of information, however complex, cannot hope to control—the truth of God’s loving message to the world; the simple birth and sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. It is a truth we cannot store on the slender filaments we force through diamonds. Rather it is a diamond that must be stored in ourselves.
Belief in the birth, the life, and resurrection of Jesus, is the information and the act by which there is power and hope. This is the information that our systems of information will never control. But if we are earnest, if we seek it with the same passion by which we have pursued our technologies, this is the information that ultimately may control us—the truth of God’s love and grace, and the salvation delivered to us by His son, Jesus Christ.
1 The Old Testament, Hebrews 4:12
2 The New Testament, St. John 1:1,4,14
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December 02, 1984
Broadcast Number 2,885