Red Letter Words
For the last few weeks, I’ve been studying the words of Jesus. In some translations of the Bible, his words are actually printed using red ink. So, focusing on just the red words, I’ve been considering what is it that Jesus has really asked me to do? I’ve started listing out the action words Jesus spoke. Here are some examples of the red-letter words that are shaping who I have become and where I’m going:
- believe — "I assure you, anyone who believes in me already has eternal life." (John 6:47 NLT)
- turn — "Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near." (Matthew 4:17 NLT)
- follow — "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23 NLT)
- thirst — "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." (Matthew 5:6 NIV)
- give — "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back." (Luke 6:30 NIV)
- forgive — "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15 NLT)
- ask — "Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy." (John 16:24 NLT)
- agree — "I also tell you this: If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you." (Matthew 18:19 NLT)
- serve — "Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43-45 NLT)
- love — "And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31 NLT)
- pray — "This is how you should pray: ‘Father, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us our food day by day. And forgive us our sins–just as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.’" (Luke 11:2-4 NLT)
- worship — "But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way." (John 4:23 NLT)
- obey — "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." (Luke 11:28 NIV)
- seek — "But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well." (Luke 12:31 NIV)
- trust — "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God." (John 14:1 NIV)
- go — "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT)
Pretty simple. I’m trying to better understand those 16 red letter words and apply them to my life. That’s God’s will. He wants that for me. That’s where I find his purpose for my life. That’s where I experience joy. Now you know what’s really on my mind these days.
Tony,
What an awesome & challenging message!
Thanks for sharing.
Andy
Tony,
Great post!! This would make a great message series. Red Letter Words of Jesus.
Robb
Nice! I am printing that out so I can look at it everyday! Thanks
I personally find printing the words of Jesus in red letters amusing.
The whole Bible is God breathed, and therefore if we take the words of God to be important, we should print the whole thing in red :)
Good stuff! I think you could make a sermon series of this one.
Happy Thanksgiving!
As I enter this world of blogging I thought today would be a great to begin. I want to start by giving thanks to all of you who I have learned so much from and one day I hope to be a help to others as you have been to me. I have listed some of my favor…
can you explain the agree passage to me.. thank you very much!!
Tony,
Saved this post from months ago…thought you should know that I’m launching a series late February called “Red Letter Living” using 5 of these passages. I’ll give you credit (ONCE ONLY!) and then I’ll be off to the races :-)
Our current series is called, “All In”…and we’re using the analogy of poker chips (which really works here in Northern Nevada)…did All In Parenting today and it was huge win.
Thanks for your leadership!
Aaron DeWinter said:
“I personally find printing the words of Jesus in red letters amusing.”
That is basically what my position is, though I don’t think it’s a amusing, but I think we should read all of the Bible, not just Jesus’ words.
I had a conversation yesterday with a friend, re: heaven, hell, who will be saved, etc & she said she wants to know specifically what Jesus said in the New Testament. She respects what John said more than any of the other disciples of Jesus who authored any books in the Bible. Seems she’s not sure if the words of the others are true or accurate. I think this is simply the enemy’s work to keep a person from seeing all of the Truth, to have doubt.
Why do I think we should read all of the words in the Bible & not just focus on Jesus’ words, giving them more credit?
Because some of the words are from those who walked, talked, followed Jesus, were witnesses to His life. They were taught DIRECTLY from Him. If we believe Jesus is God, do you think those who were taught directly from Him would misinterpret what He said, since He was God in front of them? Do you think God talking to us face to face would deceive us or allow us to misunderstand or misinterpret His teachings? That would be like blasphemy. These were His chosen followers who assigned to be with Him then carry on His teachings after His sacrificial death on the Cross & Resurrection. They saw Him before His death & after His miraculous resurrection. How amazing that must have been, so how dare they, how could they be wrong in relaying His messages. These direct followers/witnesses were persecuted for their faith! It just makes NO sense to me to not believe their words in the Bible. These words were their witness, direct inspiration from God who came on earth as man.
Tony,
I just slammed right into this in “Killing Cockroaches.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped reading in the book to quote something to my wife, but this brought the reading to a halt.
I’ve been trying to restart devotional time and use blogging as a way of journaling. This is giving me some interesting fuel to use to get started. Hopefully, blogging, like with other clichéd endeavors, the third time will be the charm.
I don’t know if you will pick up a comment from a 3.5 year old post, but I’m writing for two self-serving reasons as well: 1) hopefully public proclamation of using this as a devotional device will actually help me carry through, and 2) I still owe you a review of “Cockroaches,” so this is my confession that I’m late, and my commitment that it will be done…just figured it wouldn’t gain traction as the first post on blog #3. :-)
Thanks again for the innumerable insights from the book, your blog, and of course, Twitter.
I look forward to meeting you personally. Hopefully, when I make back to the hometown of Spartanburg, my timing will have you at the Greenville campus that Sunday (or the future Spartanburg one…right?),
Marcus