Tellout Evangelism Resources and HiVu Antique Photos Galleries
| Next | Previous | Contact Ron | Ron's Blog | Index | Tellout Home |
Hear the Word Day 15
"He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw - that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." (Revelation 1.2,3)
Justin Martyr gives the earliest account of what a Christian service was like, and it includes the reading of "the memoirs of the apostles (i.e. the Gospels), and the writings of the prophets."1 The "Reader" became in time an official office in the Church. One of Tertullian's complaints about heretical sects was the way in which a man could so speedily attain an office without any training for it. He writes: "And so it comes to pass that today one man is their bishop, and tomorrow another. Today, he is a deacon who tomorrow is a reader."2
To "hear the word" is to be "blessed." How great a privilege it is to hear the word of God in our own tongue. Men and women died to give the Bible to us. To this day, the task of translating the Scriptures in other languages for people around the World goes on. The person who keeps these words is "blessed." To hear God's word is a privilege; to obey it is a duty. There is no real Christianity in the one who hears and forgets or deliberately disregards the message of Scripture.
1Justin Martyr 1:67 2Tertullian, On Prescription against Heretics, 41
"Hear the Word."
| ^ Top Page | Next | Previous |