God Can Use Commercials!

When I was a child my family did not have a television. My grandparents however, lived just a block from our house.  I spent many days and nights there as my parents were working in order to keep our basic needs met.

I watched my fair share of Bonanza, Andy Griffith, Lawrence Welk and Bugs Bunny, as these were just a few of my grandparent's favorites.  Alongside these classics I was exposed to many of the commercials during that time which usually had some sort of catchy jingle, like the one for Toyota that my mom refurbished in order to use at the dinner table,

"You asked for it, You got it, Now eat it!" 

But one commercial would prove to have an enormous bearing on my life as I tried to live my life my way.

We all understand that repetition is how we learn language and companies and organizations like Mutual of Omaha worked diligently during the late 70's early 80's to formulate catchy tunes or repetitive use of words to make an impression on the viewer.

One such organization was Faith Comes By Hearing, a ministry dedicated to recording the Word of God in the heart language of every person so that all will come to faith in Jesus Christ.

I must have heard their commercial thousands of times, which played an audio recording of a man saying,

"Now then, faith comes by hearing 

and hearing by the word of the Lord."

Unbeknownst to me a seed was being planted deep within my heart that would one day begin to grow and produce fruit.

I will never forget as I sat in my physiology class during high school and my teacher began his sentence with,

"Now then...."

Immediately my brain went to work adding the rest of Romans 10:17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord.

My teacher used those words as an intro into many of his explanations and each time my brain would do the work of reciting that all too familiar verse out of Romans.

I would eventually go on to college to get my bachelor's degree in Biology.  While in my molecular biology class, the instructor would use the same phrase to get our attention.  Again my brain would finish the verse that had been recited in my head so many times before.

Those random occurrences proved to provide a spring board for returning to faith in Jesus Christ as a young adult.  I would later come to learn that early Jews would employ such mnemonic devices in order to memorize the Torah.

Paul exhorts the Romans in chapter 10  of the importance of hearing the word to our believing in Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:14-17

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written,

"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"  

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believers what he has heard from us?"

So faith comes from hearing, 

and hearing through the word of Christ.

Isaiah gives us an analogy to help us see the importance of the Word of God in our lives and how it will never return to God without accomplishing that which it was sent forth to accomplish.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout, 

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  

I have seen this passage play out in my own life from that one passage in Romans 10 becoming a stream of prose that continually reminded me that my faith was dependent on Christ.

One of the main verses that I now pray and ask others to pray for me is Colossians 4:3

...pray also for us, 

that God may open to us a door for the word, 

to declare the mystery of Christ,...

  Thanks be to God!  He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, today read aloud the Words of God to anyone who will listen, be faithful to sit under the preaching of the Word of God on a weekly basis, submit yourself to the Lord by submitting yourself to serving His people in loving faithfulness so that you can encourage each other to grow and mature in the Lord by hearing His Word and growing in faith and love for one another together!