Through preaching

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; Titus 1.1-3

Being a preacher this may sound like a little bit of a self promoting post. But the verse would say what it does whether I was a preacher or not. 

God, who cannot lie, promised the hope of eternal life before the foundation of the world. He presents it through His written word. But he doesn't stop there - he tells us how is word in manifested in the church age. 

'In due time [God] manifested His word through preaching.'

When I first think of preaching my first thought is what the guy behind the pulpit does on Sunday morning. You know, it is what happens after 'let's open our Bibles...'

And that is surely a part of it. But this is a little more. It is any kind of proclaimation of the Bible. It is preaching from the pulpit, studying the Bible, teaching a Sunday School class, or giving words of comfort over a cup of tea. 

Think about it for a second. God could have chosen any number of ways to make His word known. He could have done a type of heavenly skywriting by shaping the clouds. He could have made a morning audible announcement from heaven. He could have whispered quietly in each of our ears. 

But He didn't do any of that. 

God chose to show His word to the world though our proclamation of it. It is our job to do it. If we don't do it we miss out on the chance to take part in the great work of getting God's word out to a world who so badly needs it.

God have us his word. He didn't do it for us to keep it to ourselves. He gave it to us for us to share. 

Are we doing it?