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Over the past couple of weeks we have talked about the importance of making the daily reading of scripture the core part of our lives, and the foundation of our relationship with God. This all started because I wanted to share a way that God has spoken to me through my devotional times. I’ve noticed that most Christians don’t have a daily devotional time with God – in prayer and Bible reading – and that breaks my heart because they don’t know what they are missing.

Christians in Crisis

I watch as believers run around chasing after foolish things, distracted by the world and frittering away their lives. I see them struggling with temptations, falling over and over, and not knowing what to do. They try will-power or setting up guards and traps for themselves, but it doesn’t work and they feel like spiritual failures all the time so they just give up and go home.

I watch Christian people come to church, but never really engage with the worship music or the fellowship of other believers. They come because something draws them, but they float 6 feet above everyone, seeing what is happening but never experiencing what it means to truly meet God, know Christ, or be part of a church.

I watch as marriages and families disintegrate around me because the men and women are selfish and weak, addicted to money or porn, don’t know how to work through their problems in a biblical way, and refuse to ask for help because they are afraid of what people will think of them. Their faith is crippled by feelings of hypocrisy and shallow faith.

I listen to other pastors who lament the lack of maturity of the Christians around them. There is an absolute vacuum of good, godly leaders and elders. We scratch our heads as people who have been believers for decades stagnate in their spiritual lives, increase in their acceptance of sin and heretical beliefs, and continue to ask basic questions that should have been settled long ago. They remind me of when Hebrews 5:12 says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food…” Churches full of spiritual babies who never get any older as the years go by. Year after year, same immature problems, same immature beliefs.

Single women and fatherless children are crying out for good, godly, mature Christian men who will love them like Jesus – but can’t find any. Young men are looking for godly mentors to follow and a mission to give their lives to, but they aren’t finding it in the church of Jesus Christ. Churches pull further inward, afraid of the culture around them that they don’t understand or want to be a part of. Christians are in moral, theological, spiritual and relational crisis because Christians are far from Christ.

Come to Jesus

What can be done? The only thing I know that can be done is to push, pull, draw and drag people back to Jesus. He is the one who builds his church. He is the one who defends it. He knows what plans need to be taken up and what needs to be cut off. The Holy Spirit knows how to worship God best. He knows where we are to serve. He teaches us how to fix our eyes on God and fix our relationships with others. He deepens us in maturity and guides our spiritual discipleship process. He is the source of all that will repair our relationships, fix our hearts and restore our churches.

That’s why I’m so excited about this series, and why I believe the message is so very important. If the answer to everything we need for our individual, familial and corporate spiritual lives is found in Jesus, then we all need to know how to connect with Him.

Why isn’t everyone connecting to Jesus? Here’s a few reasons I’ve come up with.

Some because they don’t understand what it means to be in relationship with Jesus. They think that Christianity means being nice, avoiding fun, following rules and going to church. Just like we said during the study of the Four Soils, they don’t know Jesus personally.

Some don’t do it because they don’t want to. They have no desperation for Jesus. They are like the rich young man who believe they have done everything that is necessary to get to heaven, and don’t really need to spend time with Jesus. And when Jesus tells them to give something up in order to grow closer to him, they walk away sorrowful, not wanting to give up their worldly comfort.

And there are some don’t do it because they don’t know how it’s supposed to work. They’ve tried, but it doesn’t work. They get bored, distracted, and get nothing out of prayer or reading the Bible. They try for a while, but the world gets busy and they put it aside thinking that it’s not really for them. Maybe it’s for other types of people who like to read and write – not for them. They do have a desire to meet God, but it’s too hard – and they just don’t want to try anymore.

And each of these people is spiritual starving. They are not coming to Jesus for their daily spiritual bread, they don’t have the everlasting fountain of life within them, and so they are spiritually starving. So they try to fill their gap with other things – pleasure, pain, knowledge, stuff – but it never gives them what they need. Because it never gives them Jesus.

Salting the Oats

That’s why, for the first two weeks, I talked about evaluating the condition of our hearts and cultivating a desperation for him. I can’t make you want to read your bible and pray every day. All I can do is try to show you the condition of your heart, and then try to help you see the benefits of being with Jesus.

Someone once said, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” And the response is, “Sure… but you can salt the oats.” That’s what I’m trying to do before I give you a practical guide to Spiritual Journaling using Scripture. There’s a million different helps out there, but none of them mean anything if you don’t want them.

I want you to get a thirst for the presence and power of Jesus. I want you to see the depravity of your heart, the lack you have in your soul, the desperate need you have for a Saviour, to get a good look at your foolishness and your need for God’s wisdom. I want you to see the problems in your soul and want a solution. And I want you to know that the solution is a deep relationship with Jesus.

I’m not advocating a religious practice. I’m not pointing to an easy solution. I’m not giving you a bible verse, and this isn’t about ‘name it and claim it’ prayers. I want to share with you a way to know the One and True God, and trust and depend on Him for everything.

So, before I give you the practical guide, I want to do one more week of salting the oats. I want to tell you about this book that I’m pointing you to. I want you to see how different it is from all the other books in the world, and why it is important to read this one.

I’m not talking about reading books about the Bible – but to read the bible itself. Put down the moral story books and read the source of morality. Put down Christian authors who tell you what’s in the Bible and pick up the book written by the author of life. The Bible is alive, and has power unlike any other book ever written.

Our Umbilical Cord

Turn to Hebrews 4:12-13. If you recall last week I said that I want you to read this passage as a plea from a pastor to his people to be desperate for the word of God. That he wants his church to experience the presence of Jesus by experiencing the power of the Word of God, the Bible. He wants them to see the words of scripture as their umbilical cord, connecting them to Jesus. I also said, last week, that it’s not about reading your bible, but seeking and wanting the presence and the person of Jesus Christ. Here, in Hebrews 4 we see the scriptures and the Lord Jesus connected together. The Word of God is Jesus.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)

What I want to do for the remainder of our time here is go through this passage and look at the words that are used to describe the Bible, the “Word of God”.

“Living”

Look at how it’s described in verse 12. “For the word of God is living and active…”

The word “Living” is the word ZAO, which is where we get our word Zoo, and it is used to describe life or living things. When a dead thing is given life, or something is fresh and strong, they are ZAO. It’s used of a fresh spring of running water. It’s alive and the source of life.

I want you to remember that the way the Bible is being described here is not the way we would describe words in a book, but as a living, breathing, personal being. These aren’t merely words on a page, but the active, alive, person of God – the very presence of Jesus.

Our interaction with the text is an interaction with God. As we read the words, it is not merely coming through our eyes and into our mind, but is the voice of God being spoken into our soul, our spirit, and our hearts. It is as though God is reading them to us. It’s as though Jesus was standing next to us, speaking in our ear the words we need to hear, reminding us of what He’s all about, what His plans are, how He sees you, and what His promises are.

This is why we talked about the importance of preparing and cultivating our hearts to be receptive to Him. He’s sowing seeds as we read… will they take root in our souls. This is why we talked about having desperation for His voice and presence. Do we care that He’s standing there, speaking the words of life? Are we thirsty for him? Do we realize that the words we are reading are Living words?

“Active”

The next descriptive word is “Active”. It’s the Greek word ENERGES from which we get the English word “Energy”. The Bible is Alive and full of Energy. It’s a word used to describe something that is powerful, effective, able to make things happen. It’s a word used to describe land that is good for crops, ready to accept seed, full of potential energy.

I studied physics in school and there are different forms of energy. There’s “potential energy” which describes something that has yet to move, but can. All it needs is something to convert the potential energy into some other form. The Bible is full of potential energy for anyone who would read it. And the moment we open it and read it with receptive hearts, that energy is converted into Kinetic energy – moving us closer to God and making us active in God’s will. It’s converted into Thermal energy – heating up our lukewarm hearts and making us lights unto the world.

These are the words of Jesus, the same one who could speak to the dead body of Lazarus, buried four days in a tomb, and command him to “Come out!” (John 11:43).

These are same living and active, powerful of Jesus, who was able to rebuke the storm by saying, “Peace! Be Still!” (Mark 4:39)

These are the words of Jesus who can look at a demon and say “Be Quiet! Come out of Him!” and they must obey (Luke 4:35)

Just as God is Living and Active, able to make things happen, so God’s Word is Living and Active, full of Energy to make us alive and calm the storms in our heart.

“Sharp”

The next word used to describe the word of God is “Sharp”.  It is “sharper than any two edged sword.” A sharp sword is a dangerous weapon, but this word describes something even more dangerous. This is the word TOMOS which doesn’t describe a cut from a sword blade, but the precise incision of a scalpel. It’s not the swing of a sword, or the stab of a dagger, but the keen and direct cut of a surgeon.

You see the word TOMOS at the end of surgical words like “appendectomy” (the removal of the appendix), or “hysterectomy” (the removal of the uterus) or “rhinectomy” (the removal of the nose). When a surgeon removes an exact thing (and no more) they do an -ectomy .

This is what the Bible does. It slices us open. In the context we see that this whole section is about the scriptures being “sharp”, “piercing” inside of us, and splitting us open so that the very “thoughts and intentions of our heart” can be seen.

Think of the story of King Josiah reading the book of the Law after it had been lost for so many years, and then discovered when they were rebuilding the Temple. It says,

“When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded… saying, ‘Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’” (2 Kings 22:11-13)

After reading the word of God, King Josiah was taken apart and terrified by the judgment of God. It had revealed his disobedience and how far the people of God had fallen away from what God wanted. And it had revealed how God would punish. But it had also revealed how God would forgive His people when they turned back to Him so he calls to the priests, the government officials and the servants to get right with God!

This could be one reason that a lot of people avoid reading the Bible. For the same reason they don’t visit the doctor, or refuse to have an operation that could help them. They are afraid or they want to live in denial – and pretend they don’t have the problem.

Whenever they read the scriptures they feel the keen sting of God’s scalpel starting to cut open their chest to expose their hearts, and before God can go too deep, they close the book and tell God to go away. Sure, God’s going in there to cut out the cancer, to repair their heart, to remove the stones inside them, to cut out the dead flesh and restore life – but it hurts.

Jesus said it this way in John 15,

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser (“Gardener” NIV). Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1-2)

God’s word is sharp, like a scalpel, like a pair of pruning shears.

“Piercing”

The next word takes God’s surgery a little deeper. It says that the word of God is “piercing”. “Piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow”. The root of the Greek word is the word DIA which simply means to go “through” something, to penetrate it, to reach through something. We all know what a piercing is. It’s when people put metal through parts of their body. God is so exact in his cutting that he is able to exposes the very core of our being – he pierces through us.

One of my favourite uses of this word is to describe projectile or range weapons like arrows, javelins, slingshots or catapults that can be shot with precision into enemy lines. Today, we’d call them a sniper. God’s word cuts through the mess, gets around the rest, finds exactly what the problem is, and like a sniper, finds the thing that needs to die and kills it. No collateral damage, no accidents, no unnecessary casualties.

It says it is able to divide the separation of “joints and marrow”. Literally meaning the joint where the bones connect and the marrow inside the bones. God’s surgery doesn’t make mistakes. There’s no accidental cutting. His word hits the mark every time.

It says that God’s word is able to penetrate so deeply and so perfectly, that it can separate one’s “soul” (PSYCHE – our inner self, motives, personality, what makes us who we are) from their “spirit” (PNEUMA – their spiritual self, used of Holy Spirit and demons, that part which is inspired by God.) We can’t see the difference, and I can’t really explain it, but God can.

How does this work? Well, we can put on a good show, be religious at the right times, but when we are confronted by the Word of God, our true hearts are shown. Someone hears God’s word read or preached (or they read it themselves) and it hits them exactly where they needed to be hit. It exposes their sin, their hypocrisy, their depravity and the evil in their hearts. And they are forced to contend with it. To repent and accept forgiveness, or to harden their hearts and turn away.

Or, in the positive sense, God’s word is read or preached and it speaks exactly the words of comfort they needed to hear. They find the answer their soul has been looking for, the healing which they so desperately have desired.

That’s the power of God’s word, and I believe with all my being that when we are in the word every day, prayerfully reading and interacting with God through the text, that he pierces and divides us, speaks to the core of who we are, shows us our exact intentions, doesn’t sugar coat things – but tells us exactly what we need to hear that day. And he can do it with only a few words because those words are sharp as a scalpel, as powerful as a sniper.

“Discerning”

The final word used to describe God’s word is “Discerning”. It’s the Greek word KRITIKOS from which we get our English word “Critic”. It also means “judge”.

I would love to be a movie critic, and sometimes after watching a movie, I write little reviews on Facebook. A critic, whether for movies, music, wine, restaurants, consumer products, or whatever, is someone who is supposed to see things more deeply than the average person. They have more experience with more versions, and can tell you why something is empirically good or bad – and why. We depend on critics so that we don’t waste our time and money on worthless things, or so that we can set our expectations to the right level before we go somewhere.

God’s word is the ultimate and perfect critic. Because the Word of God is living, active, sharp and piercing, God uses it to “discern the thoughts and intentions of our heart.” God sees it, and the Bible shows it to us.

Remember last week when I said that our problem is that we don’t know our hearts? I read Jeremiah 17:9 which says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”. But the solution is that God does know our hearts, and that He gives us His word as a roadmap to our hearts. This is what I meant.

James 1:22-25 describes the word of God as being a mirror,

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

That’s a warning to us who read God’s word because it will show us who we are. This has happened to me so many times, I cannot tell you. I’ve even taken to circling them. I will start by writing out a concern, or a problem, or something that is bothering me, or a request, or a question – just something that is on my heart.

And over and over, as I read the words of God, He will open me up like a surgeon, pull out my heart, and then show it to me.

“This is what you got wrong there.”

“This is what you really meant.”

“This is what’s wrong with what you just said.”

“This is how I’m going to answer that prayer.”

In that moment, on that day, God speaks directly to me… and I can literally draw a line from my issue to God’s response. But there are so many days when I close the book, walk away, and forget the incredible thing that just happened! I forget that the God of the universe just spoke to me. And it shames me.

Perhaps you know this feeling too. You are reading scripture or listening to a bible teacher and God shows you what you are really thinking, feeling, and doing. He pulls out your ideas and desires and mental conversations and then shows you exactly what’s going on there. He replays them for you and then tells you exactly what’s going on behind the scenes.

He shows you that you are cultivating lust, or talking down to yourself, or are harboring bitterness or hatred, that you are being selfish and reinforcing bad behavior… in your mind… and he lifts the veil of your thoughts and shows you exactly what is happening in the background.

You start to pray, and you open the word, and he shows you your own intentions. He shows you what you were really thinking when you did that, why you really did it, and all the reasons behind it – that no one else really knew. He holds up a mirror to your very soul.

In this way He is softening your conscience and teaching you about yourself. He’s giving you a roadmap of your heart, a picture of who you really are. And it draws you closer to Him because you realize that you need Him to help you, save you, forgive you, change you, open you up and clean what is inside.

Where Can I Run?

Verse 13 of Hebrews 4 reminds us that

“…no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

For some, that nakedness brings nothing but shame and fear, so they close the book and refuse to open it. For others, being exposed to God is a comfort, knowing there is nothing between them, and that they are not hiding like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden ashamed of their sin, but standing in the presence of their Creator, forgiven and unashamed. It is my prayer that you would run to God, that you would allow him to open you up every day, to do surgery on your heart every day, to bring you more and more healing every day – by reading and prayerfully interacting with His word.

Let’s close by reading Psalm 139, which is prayer to God thanking Him for His perfect knowledge.

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you….

 Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!