“For the Word of God is
living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no
creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the
eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Many have had a dream, a nightmare actually, in
which everything seems normal at first in the dream, but then we notice
something awful – we don’t have any clothes on. People are staring – and
then they begin to laugh. The dream might have other forms, but the
common denominator is embarrassment. Everything seems OK, but it’s not,
and such a dream is based on our fear that no matter how careful our
planning is, others will notice how insufficient we really are and then
laugh at what they see.
It must have been in the year 1997 that I
started sending the weekly Friday Bible Study out onto the internet. I
remember first sending it out as an email to about 20-people per week,
but Genevieve, my wife, recalls that I first sent it out to only seven.
Now it goes out as an email distribution to several hundred per week and
more are joining all the time. Additionally, well over one hundred
thousand people come to our website church, www.FridayStudy.org, every
month. It’s all great, but every once in awhile I remember how it felt
to first send it out to probably just those seven people, as Genevieve
said.
I felt "naked." Yes, I had worked hard, prayed and
trained for it. And yes, I was and am prayerfully looking to
the Holy Spirit of God for His leadership in it, but I am also
human, fallible, and I know it. At the time all this began, I knew the
“whole world” would see my imperfection. But I went ahead anyway, for
God had called me to this moment. I might fail Him, but He never fails
us.
We are human, and as such, we do tend to hide
what we are, even from ourselves. It’s called “denial,” and one of the
psychological terms associated with it used to be called “repression.” I don’t
know what they call it these days, because psychological, sociological,
philosophical and theological terms tend to be modified over time. I
think the tendency is to change them if it seems that so-called lay
people are catching on to what the words actually mean.
But the Word of God does not change. As it says
in our Scripture for today, “the Word of God is
living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no
creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the
eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
We might hide from the world, from other people
around us and even try to hide from ourselves, but we can’t hide from
God and His Word. He KNOWS you and me. The Bible is “living” with the life of God. It’s like a “sword” that pierces through our defenses and reveals
who we really are. To us, our “soul” and
our “spirit” are both immaterial and
therefore we don’t see any difference between the parts that we can’t
touch or even see. But to God there is a difference and the Word of God,
the Bible goes right to it, not unlike the way a knife will carve to the “joints and marrow” of the main course at a holiday
meal.
By the way, you can tell that many in humanity
live in a sort of “pretend” state of mind, by what we value. We pretend
that money is valuable when it’s really just paper. We lie to ourselves
that gold is costly when it’s actually just a soft metal dug out of the
ground. We fabricate imaginary boundary lines between cities, states and
countries. We make believe that diamonds are costly when actually they
are just shiny stones a small child might say, “Aah,” about. We believe
we own property when actually everything belongs to God. We pretend to
be adults, but we make believe the way little children do. Society fools
itself and so do we.
By the way, as to that “naked”
feeling - Do you notice in that feeling the EXPECTATION that something
will go wrong. It’s true of many, perhaps all of us in certain
circumstances, that we often expect the worst. I recall, years ago, a
philosophy of life I had developed: “Expect the worst, but hope for the
best!” That sounded good, but far better is to always expect the best
because God loves you. It’s a hope based in reality for those who have
faith in Him.
Have you trusted in Christ? If you have, they
you are God’s son or daughter, “heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:16-17). Far more than human parents, God wants the best for His little ones, and He is
infinitely effective in bringing good to you and me.
We have tended to prefer outward material
blessings, but God does something much better – He builds inside our
very being the “fruit of the Spirit” which
you can see in Galatians 5:22-23, including “love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
(and) self control.” To receive the "Spirit" is
better than anything the world can offer. The “itch” inside
begins to go away. We find contentment where before we had strife,
and we discover HOPE in place of fear.
The anxiety of being exposed in a negative
manner begins to melt away. The fear of being “naked”
in some manner is being replaced by transparency and an openness that
comes to us through trusting in our Lord. We learn that God is aware of
EVERYTHING about us, and amazingly He loves us anyway. You are not “naked” anymore – you will know contentment.
As it says in today’s Scripture, we are far more
“naked and open” to God than we will ever fully
understand in this life. When you think you are alone, you’re really
not. And the reason so many choose to disregard the Bible is because “the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and
of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all
things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give
account” (Hebrews 4:12-13). The Bible is indeed, from this
perspective, like a knife that pierces us to the depths of our souls.
But it is also a scalpel in the hand of our Great Surgeon, bringing
healing and maturity to the self-deluded, sin-sick people of this world.
To be transparent and open is to find
humility, which can be defined as simply being who you really are. What
you see is what you get. Instead of pretending, you become – real.
Here’s what you need to know about humility: “Whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be
exalted” (Matthew 23:12). “Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James
4:10). Give yourself to the Lord. He will lift you up.
Thank You, Father, for Your Word, for it
shows us who we really are and heals us in Jesus Christ. We give
ourselves to You, Lord, just as we are. We surrender to Your will, to
Your love and to the life offered in the Son of God. Thank You. In Jesus
Name. Amen.
