Tone Deaf

Let's see...start with brilliant observation that only the most sleep-deprived or coffee-restricted could miss, like, "Hey, it's the last day of August!" Good, done. Now move into something we've all heard before but could stand to hear again, such as, "The Bible is the word of God" and go on from there with a neutral sort of Bible verse that doesn't cut too deep, maybe, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Okay, nice non-controversial devotional to start the day.

Oops, I can take a tone that is a little giddy, maybe a bit happy, and then attempt to tone down the Word, but there is a danger of cutting anytime the Word is used. The writer(s) of Hebrews stated:

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. (4:12)

Indeed, the very first verse of the Bible is not at all neutral as many have found when coming up against the lovers of Evolution. Some do not like to hear that God created the heavens and the earth, and the animals, and us. They like the absence of moral responsibility that comes with an accidental start to a rather unlikely chain of events that, given enough time, resulted in humans.

Yes, open the Word to any point and only the most willfully tone deaf will fail to hear the very voice of God speaking to them from the pages of the Holy Bible. The Word cuts deep and, woe unto us, discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Well, praise God for that because He has made my intents much better than my deeds and thoughts.

Even the great disciples and apostles of old struggled with the thought life. Paul exclaimed that he did the very thing he hated in Romans. Peter sometimes blurted out his thoughts to the Lord and received a stinging rebuke. Then again, who better to blurt out those thoughts to than the One who knows them already! For there is healing in His word as well, even in the stinging rebuke we may find while reading His wonderful Word.

Oh yes, I may try to adopt some scoffing or tone deaf attitude, but once open that Word of God and, lookout! Ouch, it cut me. It would take a very hardened heart to stand up to the sword that is the Word. I would rather have a bleeding heart for Him, than to fall so hard and so far that my heart cannot feel the precision slices of the Word of God as it cuts away the dead stuff I don't need any longer.

Have a worshipful day in the Word,
Bucky