So what about you? 

 How do You respond when confronted with God’s word? I shared a little yesterday of my personal experience with it at two different times in my younger years. 

 Do you acknowledge it as Truth and ‘receive it with meekness’ as James encourages us to do? (1:21). Or do you bristle, and squirm and respond with ‘yeah, but...’ wanting to suggest maybe it really doesn’t mean ‘that’; especially...when it steps on our toes or shines light in to some ‘dark’ area of our hearts? God’s word can be like that for us. 

 It has a tendency to be quite ‘sharp’. Actually, Paul wrote that it is ‘sharper than a two-edged sword...piercing even...to the division of soul and spirit...and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12). He also mentioned there it is ‘living and powerful’. 

 There’s probably a good reason why we are admonished to ‘stand on the word’. We are told that the ‘heavens and the earth will pass away, but the word of God will endure forever’. Seems if I was told that a giant storm was coming and there was only one shelter that was designed to withstand the force of that storm, I would want to be in that shelter. 

 God’s word IS...that shelter. Remember the ‘word picture’ Jesus gave us in Luke 6:47-49 where two houses were built on two different foundations and faced the same violent storm? The house built on the ‘rock’ was left intact. The other one experienced great collapse and ruin. 

 In comparing the two foundations, Jesus likened it to hearing His word. Both builders...heard....the word. But the house that was built on rock was used to illustrate the man who not only ‘heard’ the word, he actually ‘did’ or ‘put in to practice’ what he heard. His house ‘could not be shaken’. 

 But that guy who built his house on sand and experienced the same onslaught...he also ‘heard’ the word. 

 He just did not do it or apply it. 

 Sounds like a very thin or defining ‘line’ there, does it not? And what a difference it made. 

 God’s word is...truth. (John 17:17). And God’s word is light. (Ps. 119:105) 

 And if you want to connect a few more dots here, Jesus claimed to be ‘the Truth’ and the ‘Light of the world’. (John 14:6 & 8:12). He is also the ‘Word’ who ‘was in the beginning’ and ‘became flesh and dwelt among us’. (John 1:1, 14) 

 So when we read where “Everyone who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God,” (John 3:21) it becomes evident that we either come to the light of His truth to have our hearts exposed and cleansed and transformed by Him, or we choose the other avenue given there in the preceding verse. 

 “Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (20) 

This was in fact, the ‘verdict’ or ‘condemnation’ that Jesus declared there...”light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (19) 

 We are also told there in John 1 that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (4-5). You might also make note of Luke 1:79 and Matt. 4:16. You might also review the opening words in our bibles found in Genesis 1 that describes the creation. Darkness covered the earth that was without form and void and God spoke and said ‘Let there be Light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. (1-4) And He only said the light, was good; not the darkness. 

 Still with me here? Jump back to John 12 and read vs. 35-36...just a few more ‘dots to connect’ that are worth noting there. 

Now, one more...flip back to 1 John 1:6-7 and read that. Do you think it is possible that what God is trying to say here, is in order for us to experience genuine transformation in our lives, and to be recipients of His mercy and forgiveness...that we may actually have to ‘walk with Him’ as opposed to just ‘saying we believe in Him’? And why would this make us uneasy...unless it doesn’t ‘fit’ with how we have always thought or been taught to believe? 

 Sounds to me like this is talking about ‘abiding in Jesus’. 

 He came into this world of darkness where we were dead in our sins and the wrath of God was upon us because of sin. (Eph. 2:1; John 3:36) We ALL...had sinned and were like lost sheep. He did not come to condemn us, rather...He came to save us. (John 3:17). And what did He come to ‘save us from’? - The wrath of God. (Rom. 5:9). 

 When we turn (repent) and come to Him with our whole heart...He receives and accepts us just the way we are. In fact, the moment you turn and begin coming to Him, He actually runs to you to embrace as He’s been looking for You. (Luke 15:20; 2 Chron. 16:9). It was never His will for you to perish and suffer but to flee the darkness and bondage and find freedom and rest and cleansing in Him. (2 Pet. 3:9; Acts 3:19,26) 

 So where am I going with all this today? It goes back to - how do we respond to His word - ALL of it. 

 Not only is His word ‘living and powerful’ like we read earlier, and that it ‘works effectively in those who believe’, ( 1 Thess. 2:13) but it is how God begins the cleansing process as He prepares us for this upcoming ‘wedding’ we talked about last week. What kind of ‘bride’ is He coming back for? “Holy, spotless, blameless, without stain or wrinkle”? (Eph. 5:26-27). 

 When Paul was explaining what his desire was regarding the condition of the church/bride he hoped to present to the Lord, he described it this way: “to present you as a chaste/pure virgin to Christ’. (2 Cor. 11:2). But he also expressed concerns there that this might not happen if ‘other gospels’ filter in and hinder that process’. 

 You see, it’s by the ‘washing of the water of the word’ of God, that this cleansing happens. (Eph. 5:26) 

 Allow me to explain it this way: When we turn to Jesus with our whole heart, we are encouraged by Peter to ‘desire the pure milk of the word, as newborn babes, so we may grow thereby’. (1 Pet. 2:2) 

 It is safe to say that if we are not feeding upon and immersing ourselves in His word, we are not growing...and we are not being ‘washed’. All that other stuff we can get sidetracked feeding on...does not do the job. 

 Have you ever had to sit next to a person for any length of time, be it on a plane, or bus, or wherever...and it soon becomes evident that the person next to you has not bathed in some time? Yeah...well...you get the point here. 

 God loves us...and if you are going to get ‘cleaned up’, you better be following and abiding in Him. It’s not an option. Look how James describes this process there in his letter- 

“Therefore lay aside ALL filthiness and overflow of wickedness (flesh nature), and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But 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 observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” 

God’s word is not only a ‘light’, but it is a ‘mirror with a light’. :- ). 

 I’ve shot enough weddings over the years to witness when a bride who is preparing herself to join with her soon-to-be husband...that if/when she is looking in to a mirror and sees something ‘out of place’ or that should not be there, she’s quick to fix or remove it. God is not interested in ‘photoshopping’ us in to his image and likeness. (Rom. 8:29) He’s going to lead us through the refining fires in the wilderness to test and purify our hearts. 

 May I state the obvious here? Your flesh abhors the idea of this. And if it can find another way or ‘doctrine’ to help you ‘save your life’, well, just know that Jesus said you will end up losing it.(Matt. 16:25) 

Tomorrow...a look at how this process actually works...(Lord Willing) :- )