“….a light shining in a dark place…”
2 PETER 1:19
The light that Peter refers to is the word of God. The dark place is our hearts. And when given a chance to shine its truth, the Bible works an amazing transformation.
The prophet Jeremiah spoke the truth about the spiritual heart before the surgery of God’s word takes place. We are told it is, “deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” JEREMIAH 17:9. A dark place indeed! And humanly speaking that is true. But God’s word has a cleansing power that goes down deep and gets to the heart (pun intended!) of the matter.
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.
HEBREWS 4:12
Isaac Walton, George Herbert’s biographer, said about the Bible: “every hour I read you kills a sin, or lets a virtue in to fight against it.”
Paul says in Romans 15:4 that “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
Scripture was indispensable to the spiritual maturation of Jonathan Edwards. He recalls that at 19:
I had then, and at other times, the greatest delight in the Holy Scriptures of any book whatsoever. Oftentimes in reading it every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words.
I seemed often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading; often dwelling long on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.
This Sunday Jackson Randall will remind us of the link between the word of God and our spiritual health and vitality. Be praying that we will take his words to heart, and that the word of God will more and more shine its light into our hearts.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. PSALM 119:105
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