Nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the One He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. John 5:37-40 (NIV)
Because of the wasp bite to my forehead, the side of my face is puffy and my left eye is completely swollen shut. I stayed home from work because I cannot see to drive and reading gives me a headache. I am not one to lie around watching TV, so decided to clean my house thoroughly. The ignored house looked really bad. There were piles of junk on the countertops and an inch of sand underneath the dining table. A deep clean is what it needed, but since that is not something I have the time to do usually, with a whole day and nothing to do, I set out to dig into the cracks and crannies that are not usually touched. I made a long list of things needed like scrub the refrigerator, wash the floors, and sort through my clothes so I could empty out my closet. Unfortunately, as I moved through the house like a bulldozer putting things where they belonged and scrubbing up the mess, I realized with only one eye to see, I was missing some of the dust and dirt as I went along. When I finished polishing the wood floors, I pried my bad eye open long enough to see that my mop had left lines of dust where I stopped. I cleaned the bathroom mirror, took a second harder look and noticed water spots I had not seen before. It was very frustrating. A friend came over to bring me lunch and talk about the auction. It was a welcome respite from my labors. Part of our conversation included a discussion about how often we study God’s Word to gain knowledge, but fail to catch the true meaning of the Word and apply it to our own lives. We can memorize scripture, attend Bible Study after Bible Study and even teach a class, but as long as we treat it as something to be acquired and collected, it falls on deaf ears. We talked about how the information needs to get from our head to our hearts. That when God’s Word is heard in the depths of our soul, and we allow the Holy Spirit to make it come alive there, then, our lives are changed dramatically. I thought about another friend who had complained that a sermon she heard was boring. While the delivery of a message might lack spark, there is nothing about God’s Word that is boring. In fact, even the worst speaker can be the most inspired if we open our hearts to have God’s Word planted there by the Holy Spirit. Just like my efforts to clean my house with only one eye, going to church, listening to a teacher, even completing a Bible Study are for naught unless we have both eyes open. We need to ask God to open our eyes and let His Word grow and take root. Then, it will never be boring, but fresh and new each time we hear it.
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