Tag Archives: Bible Word of God

Pastoral thoughts

Getting a Good Rest

It happens so often. I’ll sit back and turn on the news (largely because I want to catch the weather and sports reports.) It’s not long before the weather report comes on, and the next thing I hear is the news anchor thanking me for watching! I’ve awakened to realize I’ve missed what I tuned in to hear! Then, of course, when I go to bed I have some trouble getting to sleep! It all has to do with how to enter into a good rest.

Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4 is all about resting. The author knew God’s people needed to discover a whole new lifestyle called resting in the Lord. So near the end of this section of his letter he explains how to enter this precious rest: “For the word of God is living and active…” (Hebrews 4:12) Rest comes from the Word of God.

Rest comes from the Word of God because God’s Word exposes the truth. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13) The Word exposes things as they really are.

You receive a box in the mail. It has no labels or identifying information regarding where or who it’s from. You have no way of knowing what, if anything, is inside it. Only by opening it up, uncovering it, can you see and know the truth. Similarly, opening the Word reveals the truth, and lets us see ourselves the way we really are! No creature has any cover from the sight of God. God’s eyes have unlimited exposure! Before him we are laid bare, uncovered, naked!

The word for “laid bare” is the word from which we get “trachea.”

The picture which comes to mind is that of the criminals who were marched to execution. They had a dagger strapped to their chest, pointing upwards, so their head would always be lifted up, exposing the trachea. This way they could not bow away from God but had to face Him. So the Word makes us face the truth about ourselves and God. No matter how hard we try to keep things hidden God, through His Word, lays bare our lives and uncovers all we’ve tried so hard to hide.

God does so to heal and set us free. Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” That’s why the woman from Samaria, who encountered Jesus at the well, eventually told her friends, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” She was free! Exposing the truth frees us. Back before it was discovered that hands carried germs, many surgeons were frustrated to perform successful surgery only to have patients die from an infection of unknown origin. Then came the discovery about hands and germs. It was this truth which set us free from death. Exposure to the truth heals.

A Christian university student shared a room with a Muslim. As they became friends, their conversation turned to their beliefs. The believer asked the Muslim if he’d ever read the Bible. He answered no, but then asked if the Christian had ever read the Koran. The believer responded, “No, I haven’t, but I’m sure it would be interesting. Why don’t we read both together, once a week, alternating books?”

 

 

 

 

 

The young man accepted the challenge, their friendship deepened, and during the second term he became a believer in Jesus. One evening, late in the term, he burst into the room and shouted at the long-time believer, “You deceived me!” “What are you talking about?” the believer asked. The new believer opened his Bible and said, “I’ve been reading it through, like you told me, and just read that the Word is living and active!” He grinned. “You knew all along that the Bible contained God’s power and that the Koran is a book like any other. I never had a chance!” “And now you’ll hate me for life?” queried the believer. “No,” he answered, “but it was an unfair contest.” (i)

The reality is that to be completely known is one of our deepest needs. We need, and deep down inside we want to find someone who knows us completely and who will still be for us. We cry out with Job (Job 23:3-5): “If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say.” I am deeply moved every time I read these words of A. W. Tozer: “God knows us completely. No tale bearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past to God. No unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us since He already knew us utterly before we knew him. And He called us to himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.” God’s Words exposes the truth so we can experience the overwhelming love and grace of Jesus Christ and be freed from the burden of hiding so much for so long!

That’s why the author of Hebrews puts these words about the Scriptures into the discussion on rest. The Word is an oasis for parched, tired lives. Psychologists say that mental health consists in coming to know ourselves fully, in losing our illusions and exposing our pretenses, in squarely facing all the facts, in confronting all our fears, in admitting all our failures. The Word tells us this can only happen under the grace of Christ. So Hebrews continues, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Expose yourself to the truth. Live each moment believing Jesus, who knows all and sees all, will always bear with you. And you will enter into wonderful rest.

(i)Floyd Schneider, Evangelism for the Fainthearted (Kregel, 2000); quoted in Men of Integrity (March/April 2001)

Pastoral thoughts

An Inside Job

Everyday I take some pills. Some are vitamins and some are prescriptions. I don’t know how they get into and go through my system. I do not feel them doing anything. Yet I seldom ask “Why should I take these pills – I don’t feel any different?” Why? Because the state of my health assures me they are working inside my body. It’s an inside job.

Similarly I eat meals everyday. I have some understanding of how they get into and go through my system. But unless I overeat I do not feel them doing anything. And I can’t tell you what I ate for lunch July 21 or dinner April 3 or even lunch last Monday. Yet I never ask “Why should I eat these meals- I don’t feel any different and I don’t remember them anyway?” Why? Because when I have strength to get up each morning I know the food is working inside my body. It’s an inside job.

I also read the Bible with great regularity (I confess I do not do it everyday, much to my own disappointment. And there’s no one to blame but myself.) Sometimes as I read I am not inspired, am not moved, and learn nothing new; I do not sense anything happening. Yet it’s been many years since I’ve asked “Why should I read the Bible so often – so often I don’t feel any different? And I don’t remember what I’ve read.” Why? Because the Bible assures me that God’s Word always does something inside me. It’s an inside job.

Consider Psalm 119. “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.” (9) I” have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. “(11) “Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.” (24) “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.” (93) “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.” (99) “I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.” (100) “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (103-105)

Consider Isaiah 55:10-11. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Consider Hebrews 4:12-13. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

I am convinced that every time I read the Bible the Holy Spirit goes to work in me – even if I am totally unaware of what He is doing. It’s an inside job. John Piper put it beautifully: “I spend this much time on Bible memory because I believe in the power of the indwelling Word of God to solve a thousand problems before they happen, and to heal a thousand wounds after they happen, and to kill a thousand sins in the moment of temptation, and to sweeten a thousand days with the ‘drippings of the honeycomb.’ (“When I Don’t Desire God”, 123)

I will continue to read the Bible. But not to be inspired or moved, or to learn something new or with the hope that I will experience some great feeling. Any of these dynamics are but bonuses. Rather, I will read knowing that God will go to work on and in me. He will increase my spiritual health and strengthen my faith. He will continue to transform me into the image of Jesus. It’s an inside job I can live with. In fact, I cannot live without it.