The Word of God is like a vast ocean, deep and unfathomable, yet crystal clear and invigorating. It is the means by which we guard our hearts—the wellspring of life—quenching the thirst of the soul and nourishing the mind. For the man, born of water and of spirit, to delve into the pages of Scripture is to bask in the radiant glow of our Creator, our Father, and the author and sustainer of our faith. It is to be encompassed by the comfort, hope, and love that the Lord has given his elect to nourish them through the chaos of life in a fallen world.

The Psalmist declares, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” and indeed, as we study the Word, it illuminates the path before us, revealing the will of God and the way to holiness. It is a treasure trove of wisdom and instruction, a source of comfort and encouragement in times of trial.

But it is not only the content of scripture that draws us to it but also the transformative power it holds. For through the Word, the Lord works in our hearts, giving us a new heart—one that beats in harmony with His. As Jeremiah writes, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

And so, with the new heart the Lord has given us, the study of His Word becomes our very favorite thing to do, for it is in its pages that we come to know and love our Creator more fully. It is there that we find true refreshment and motivation for living. There alone is where we find the grace of Jesus Christ, powerful enough to save any sinner, and the lone place where we find our rest. It is the Word of God that sustains us and guides us on our journey home.

The Word of God is not a chore, but our Sabbath rest.

Yet, megachurch pastor, Mike Todd, who we’ve written about numerous times, declares that studying the Word of God is exhausting, tiring, and that he hates it. In a recent video dug up by our friends at Protestia, Mike Todd admitted this to his audience:

Vision eliminates excuses. When you get a vision, excuses become irrelevant. I do tons of stuff I don’t like doing because of the vision that God’s given me. Can I be HOT with ya’ll? Humble, open, transparent? I don’t like studying to preach every Sunday. It is tedious work for me. I start on Wednesday, to get to Sunday, and I’m working on Thursday, and on Friday, and on Saturday, and I’m tweaking up until 30 minutes before service on Sunday. Every week.

I hate it. But I will do it for the rest of my life. Why? Because of the vision God has given me. I don’t have an excuse when God gives me vision. And this is why your excuses are louder than your production. It’s because you don’t have a vision. But let’s eliminate excuses by doing what? Getting a vision.

At least we have one thing from this—it exposes Mike Todd for the fraud that he is. The true pastor, called by God, is not characterized by some faux vision he claims to receive, but by the qualifications laid out in Scripture and found in Titus, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, and elsewhere: Devoted to his wife, one-woman man, marriage illustrates Christ’s love for His church, love his wife exclusively with his mind, will and emotions, children must be in submission, faithful steward, humble, gentle, sober, peaceful, financially integrity, hospitable, lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, able to teach, spiritually mature, respectable, example to the flock.

While I can’t speak to all of these, we can say that he fails on several of these points, particularly, being upright, holy, self-controlled, able to teach, spiritually mature, respectable, and an example to the flock.