2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalm 138:2 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash
I try to be a person who tells the truth. But this past week something happened that made me wish I could tell a lie. Here’s the story.
On Saturday I was in the process of checking out a big pile of books at the Meridian Public Library. Most of them were Bible commentaries and there were also some historical books about the King James Version. Making small talk, the librarian asked “Are you a preacher?”
Of course, I said “yes.” But for a moment I wished I could lie. In my mind, it would have been a lot better if I could have said “no.” People naturally expect preachers to study the Bible. Wouldn’t it have been great if I could have said, “No, I’m not a preacher. But I dearly love the Bible and everything about it because it is God’s holy and inerrant Word.” Or words to that effect.
I’ve got to admit something here. Sometimes I have studied the Bible because I’m a preacher. Ready or not, Sunday is coming and all the preachers are going to need something to say. But it is my sincere hope that most of the time I love and study the Bible because I’m a child of God and because that’s the thing that God’s children do.
Today’s Scripture verse (at the top) contains a truth that is amazing to me. It says that God has honored His Word above His Name. That means that God’s Word is vastly important. I am not sure that I can even fathom that. That’s something to think about next Sunday when we dig our Bibles out of the floorboard of the car where they’ve been for seven days.
So, if you’re not a preacher, help me out this week. Become a student of God’s holy Word. Make it such a part of your life that people can’t help but notice. Sooner or later, somebody will ask you if you are a preacher.
Then you can take it from there.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 28 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school, and until recently taught Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the preacher mailed the photographs yesterday.) Their kids include Spencer (age 22), his wife Madeline (age 22), and Seth (age 19).
