The concept of “vision” is incredibly popular these days.  If you were to go to your local bookstore, you would have no problem finding several different books on this subject.  Even in Christian bookstores, it would not be hard to find a number of titles on “vision” and visioneering.”  One of the verses that pastors love to quote is Proverbs 29:18.  “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (KJV)  But what is vision?  Obviously it is needed because without it the people perish, but what did Solomon have in mind when he penned that verse?  The way the NIV translates this verse is helpful for our question.  “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.”  In this rendering, it is clear that “vision” is directly connected with Divine revelation.  The human soul has a desperate need to hear the very words of God.  Presently, there is a famine in the land, but most don’t even realize it.  In pulpits all over the country, people are hearing a lot of “good advice” but very little “good news.”  In Amos 8:11-12, we read these solemn words.  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”  Surely we are witnessing a fulfillment of that prophecy in our day. 

You might be wondering, what is the difference between “good advice” and “good news?”  The answer is very simple.  We find good advice from a number of different places such as TV, radio, books, magazines, internet, etc.  Good news, on the other hand, is only found from only one Source – that being God himself.  The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope that we find in Him.  We can thus conclude that the pulpit must be a place where the Word of God is heralded and proclaimed and not a place where we hear the same “good advice” that we might hear from Dr. Phil or Oprah.  If the people of God are to know where to go and how to live and how to walk “in the light,” then they must have a steady diet of God’s Word.  Vision and the Word of God are inseparable.