Good morning and the blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles please, to 2 Timothy the third chapter for our time in God's Word today? This coming Sunday is such an important day in the life of the congregation..."Rally Sunday"  in which we rally anew around the Word of God. Sunday school for age three through adult.

It's a wonderful, wonderful day. And so as we prepare for rally day this coming Sunday, I thought of 2 Timothy, the third chapter. There we read these words, Paul writing to Timothy beginning in chapter three, verse 14. "But as for you, continue in what you've learned and firmly believed, knowing from who you learned it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings. How from childhood you've known the sacred writings."

I think when a baptism occurs for a child, there's those questions of covenant with the parents. One of the questions is, will you place in their hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for their instruction in the Christian faith? It's that charge that is given to them that is so important, isn't it? There are so many things, so many things that kids, especially nowadays, can get involved in. The one thing that's needful, one thing is to place in their hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for their instruction in the Christian faith.

I've said it often time before. It was just an incredible gift that my parents gave to me when I was a child. They never dawned on me what we would be doing on Sunday morning. It was always church, always. It never crossed my mind whether or not we were going to church or not.

It was that elevation on the importance of worship, that prioritizing that in our family, that placing in the hands of the Holy Scripture, providing for instruction in the Christian faith. What a wonderful, wonderful gift that is to give. You see, a child can certainly pick up on things. They can certainly pick up when worship and the study of God's Word and receiving that Word is put on the same plane as all of the other opportunities that are out there. Child can pick up that if other priorities are chosen instead of worship in the study of God's Word, they then see that all of the things are on the same level.

Instead of see what my parents gave me as the gift, the elevation of worship and the study of God's Word. I'm just so struck by those words and how from childhood you've known the sacred writings. Then Paul goes on to say that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Word of God is a means of grace. God uses the Scriptures to birth in us faith and to kindle faith, to strengthen faith.

That's the means that God appoints. He comes to us through the means of grace, word and sacrament. And those are the tools that he used. So if those are the divinely appointed tools, then by the grace of God, may we avail ourselves to those. For through those means, he births, sustains and grows the faith.

We rally around the Word of God. And the reliability of the Word of God is such a blessing. Going on into the very next verse, verse 16. "All scriptures inspired by God is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work."

All scripture is inspired by God. It is exhale. That literally is what the word means. It's exhaled by God. That's why we say what the Scriptures reveal to us, that God's Word is inerrant and it is infallible. It does not err and it is incapable of error.

What a precious, precious gift that God gives us in the Word, that Word that contains the gospel, that Word of good news before us, that Word that through Christ Jesus, his death and resurrection, we have been redeemed, bought back. What a glorious, glorious Word for us. So I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you this Sunday to rally anew around the Word of God. Adults, I'd like to invite you to my class on 1st, second and third. John, these epistles of love, We're going to explore those for nine weeks. It's, by the way, an incredible witness to your child or your grandchild when you are in study along with them on Sunday morning. So let's rally anew around this precious gift of God's Word. Let us study it. Let us receive it.

Let us give thanks for it. Let's pray. Gracious God, we give you thanks for your Word. Your Word is truth. And Lord, rally us and do around your Word, for it is precious. You come to us, you speak to us. For the very words that we hear when we open the pages of Scripture are your words. So use your Word to your glory. Each and every day, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

God bless you. Encourage someone.

Pastor Eibel