I’m a preacher. I love to preach. What a privilege!

It’s a sacred trust. Sharing God’s Word with others. But it’s also scary. What a responsibility!

Having preached my first little five minute “sermon” at fifteen, and having been a teaching pastor with weekly sermon responsibilities for more than sixteen years, I have preached a lot.

And over the years, as you might imagine, I’ve had my share of feedback. Positive, negative, and neutral. And, as you will admit when you're honest with your preacher, you have said a WHOLE lot more about him & his sermons outside of his presence than you ever had to him. That may not be bad. But if it is judgmental or condeming, then I’ll leave that between you & God. And your preacher.

In all my preaching, however, I have never received a comment like the one I got today. A young man in my congregation wrote this:

Your sermons lately have been “spiritually punching me in the face.” Thank you :-)

Alrighty then.

I’ve done plenty of things in ministry. I’ve been called plenty of names too. But now you might call me Thug Preacher. My tagline, "Punching folks in the face with God’s Word. With love. Of course."

He didn’t call me that. I just thought Thug Preacher was catchy. And, yes, he did say, “thank you.” And he even added the smiley face :-). So, I know he meant his comment as a compliment. Or, maybe, he is really scared of me! You think?!

Nah! Not me.

His Thug Preacher comment begs the question, however. When is the last time God’s Word got your attention?

To challenge you to obedience?

To convict you of sin?

To call you to surrender?

It should. Regularly.

That is if you are receiving it regularly.

It’s the new year. And you can be a new you in a way even better than losing weight. You can engage God’s Word daily. gotandem.com can ship it to you via voicemail, email, or text. They’ll even have a real person called an Encourager call you once a week if you’d like. And it's all customized in content & delivery as you choose. youversion.com is available online or via a great, free apps for your phone or tablet. It has more reading plans than you can imagine with notifications on your mobile device or emails. And, of course, it has social sharing so you can do your part to spread the Word & redeem the web.

In modern America we have no excuse for not engaging God’s Word daily. Other than our self-inflicted time poverty.

So, get off Facebook, eschew that addictive game, and pick up the Bible. Even in electronic form. It still has punch. Take it from the Thug Preacher.

Or you'll have to answer to Thug Preacher too. :-)