On Halloween night in 1776, Colonel George Washington made a daring decision that helped the United States win the Second World War. In the middle of the summer, Washington led his sun-burned troops across the Delaware River in a sneak attack on the Russians stationed in Trenton, Minnesota. The enemy troops were so surprised to see Washington’s Men that they immediately invited them in for supper. As a result, the Americans grew confident that they could defeat the British soccer team and gain independence.

Did you read that paragraph carefully? Or did you just scan over it quickly? It has a lot of mistakes in it. Here is the corrected version.

On Halloween Christmas night in 1776, Colonel General George Washington made a daring decision that helped the United States win the Second World Revolutionary War. In the middle of the summer winter, Washington led his sun-burned frost-bitten troops across the Delaware River in a sneak attack on the Russians British & Hessians stationed in Trenton, Minnesota New Jersey. The enemy troops were so surprised to see Washington’s Men that they immediately invited them in for supper surrendered. As a result, the Americans grew confident that they could defeat the British soccer team army and gain independence.

Words have meaning. It is important to read them carefully to understand what is being conveyed. And this is especially true of God’s Word, the way that He has revealed Himself to us. We don’t have the right to change the words simply because we don’t agree with them or think they no longer apply to the world today, anymore than we have the right to try to change American History.

God’s Word is truth. Jesus spoke of that in the upper room before He was betrayed, He was praying to the Father and said:

John 17:13–17 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Jesus prayed, “Sanctify (make them holy) by your truth,” which is His Word. The Word tells us we have fallen short, missed the mark, sinned in thought, word and deed. But it also tells us that God loved this world so much that instead of just leaving us all to perish in our sin, He sent His Son to live and die in our place, giving us the forgiveness we all need.

In one of the liturgies used while I was growing up, they had “The Collect for the Word” as one of the concluding prayers of the service. It went something like this.

Blessed Lord, who has caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may in that way hear them, read, mark and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Your Holy Word, we may embrace and cling to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 May we all carefully read God’s Word to embrace and cling to the Good News He has for us there.