This weekend preachers all over the world will expound the word of God to lift up the Word of God. The book is living and active, so let God’s preachers today be alive in the Spirit.

Christopher Ash, in his book Hearing the Spirit: Knowing the Father Through the Son, channels his inner Machen to give us this wonderful exhortation to fuel faith in God’s word:

Let us never slip into speaking of the Bible as a dead book. Back in 1923 J. Gresham Machen wrote, “Let it be said that dependence upon a book is a dead or artificial thing. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was founded upon the authority of the Bible, yet it set the world aflame. Dependence upon a word of man would be slavish, but dependence upon God’s word is life.” Elsewhere he speaks of “a so-called ‘dead orthodoxy’ that is pulsating with life in every word. In such orthodoxy there is life enough to set the whole world aglow with Christian love.”

God’s not dead and so His word is alive. Now go ascend to the sacred desk and set the world afire in love for Christ.