Hebrews 4:12

"The word of God is living and active." I have thought of this verse numerous times this past week in many different conversations and meetings. In many of those conversations, the verse was more of a question than a statement: How does the word of God become living in active in someone's life? What are barriers for someone to experience the living and active (transformational) word of God in their life?

For me personally, sometimes familiarity with the word of God shields me from its full impact. I am not suggesting familiarity with Scripture is bad - sometimes you just do not realize the value of something that is a normal part of your life. When I was growing up, I had some baseball cards. One of my favorites was a Nolan Ryan rookie card. The value of the card came from the fact that I liked Nolan Ryan, it never occurred to me that the card could have greater value. In college, I was a camp counselor and the campers were avid baseball card collectors. They did not collect cards because of the players; rather, good cards were determined by financial value. They told me my Nolan Ryan card had great value, it was worth a lot of money. Unfortunately for me, the card had been thrown away. Nolan Ryan had retired and my interest in baseball had diminished so my baseball cards were probably burned in garbage.

I wonder how much more value the words in scripture have than I realize for my life and the lives of the people around me. How does your interaction with scripture lead to change in your life?