the KJV, the NIV, and the WWW

The Word for today:
Matthew 28:1-20

If I had to name just one, I'd say that the most important book of the Bible is Matthew. Jesus' final words in this most important book have come to be called The Great Commission:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

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I'll bet that I'm older than most of you. And in my heart of hearts, I'm the nerd of nerds. So, by age and temperament, I'm out of style. But insofar as carrying out The Great Commission, I am "with it."

Well, actually, I'm not with it. But my wife is. I was happy to be writing a monthly column for a church newsletter until Shelley said I should write a daily "blog." I'd heard the term, but wasn't quite sure what it meant. So Shellster explained it to me.

The next day I posted this blog's first entry. For the first month or two, only a handful of people were reading it. As of now, about 500 persons per week open and read it.

I just googled "average church size."  One in 24 churches in the USA has 500 or more people attending on a given Sunday. That means that, week by week, more souls now "hear" the Word of God proclaimed through this one blog than through the weekly sermon at a relatively big church.

Some will want to diminish that statement. They'll insist on a 'but'--
"But those numbers aren't real. That's cyberspace. That's virtual, not real."

I beg to differ.  I'm real, and whatever I know about the Bible was learned via the internet, at ttb.org.  Every day for five years I sat for about an hour, pencil poised in my hand; stopping, replaying, and taking notes as old Doc McGee, the greatest Bible teacher this side of Jesus Christ, taught me (and a million more like me) line upon line, precept upon precept (1).

As I learned about the real Jesus, as the kingdom of God stormed my soul, it certainly wasn't "virtual" to me.

Now don't tell the traditionalists, who have a vested interest in that "real" brick and mortar church on the corner; don't tell them that the Bible itself is virtual--it's the virtual Jesus. My trusty old KJV and your spiffy new NIV are just as virtual as the WWW (World Wide Web).

The Bible is a printed word, expressing the Word made flesh. Whether the Word appears on a page or on a monitor or on an iPhone (or iPod or iPad) makes no difference to God. What makes a difference to God is whether His Kingdom is advancing.

Jesus' Great Commission to his disciples is to--
1. Go into all the world. That's the internet's specialty. Give the WWW a check.
2. Make other disciples. That would be me, and perhaps you. Give the WWW another check.
3. Baptize those new disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The WWW can't transmit water, but all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ are baptized in the Holy Spirit (2) -- the real baptism, which water baptism only virtually represents.  I say that deserves another check.
4. Teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded us. Check.

The virtual Word of God -- on paper or via blog -- is an expression of the Word made flesh, who shed real blood so you can be a real son or daughter of God with a real immortal body in a real forever in a real place called heaven.

"All authority in heaven and on earth (and in cyberspace) has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

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(1) Isaiah 28:10; (2) 1 Corinthians 12:13