Two-Edged Sword
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
The above passage says so much. God's word itself is the two-edged sword, it pierces and even divides "asunder the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow." But that's not all! God's word "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
There is a passage in Isaiah that I prayed about for a long time, and it goes into this division.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Isaiah 28:9-13
If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct. Ecclesiastes 10:10
July 9 2017
Good insight, thank you. Father, separate the things from us that are not your Spirit and nature. Carnality/EGO must be crucified in us! We ONLY want your heart and to walk in your ways. Love one another.
Amen actsinmotion.
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Amen, He does sharpen us in His Word when we study prayerfully and seek Him. Hebrews 4:12 is such an amazing revelation if you don't know much about God's Word. So many people consider the Bible just a book, and not many read it. They sadly don't understand what's in it and what they're missing out on! If your heart is open to Him, He'll show you through His Word the truth of it and show you the most amazing things.
"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jeremiah 33:3)
Amen doule, prayerful study of the word, like a child, allowing Jesus to show us what it means. He knows us through and through. God is so good and His word is living.
Great verse it's always about calling on HIM, God teaches us.
God bless you brother.
Amen @livingwaters! God is so good and it's amazing that His word is living. When I'd only read the Gospels, as I told you about, I spent years just reading them over and over, and I got to know them well but missed so much that was in them. I didn't even realize how John described that Jesus was the Word, or maybe I just didn't give it much thought. How amazing is it that God's Word is living! Our words don't, unless we speak His Word.
God bless you too, sister! And not that it's all that important, but just for record, I'd better say here that I'm actually not a brother but a sister too :) Probably about 10 people here at Steemit have called me "bro" so I've switched profile pictures a few times to try to find a picture that makes that I'm a "sis" clear, but I've had some trouble finding a better one though I've spent a couple hours looking on Pixabay, since many pictures don't show up well in that little space. I passed on using one of me, and I've realized that my user name doesn't make it clear either (it's actually the ancient Greek word for a female bond servant or handmaid, and is the word that Mary used when she said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." I'm hoping in the future Steemit will allow more personalization of our blog pages so it's easier for users who are female to make that clear.
doule, my husband reads the gospels over and over. He's just now starting to read the other NT books. That will be encouraging for him to hear.
We get together with our son and his girlfriend once a week and have dinner, read the Bible and pray together. His girlfriend isn't a believer, but she takes part, and she has even memorized the ten commandments. We all did that because my husband read that a very small percentage of Christians know them by heart, and he wanted to be in that number that knows them. So we go over that before we pray and read. We all say one, and the next person says the next one, and then I look at her, "come on you know these," lol and she does.
I wasn't sure if you were a sis or a bro, I even stopped for a second in my response thinking I could reword it where I didn't have to ask you or say one or the other. lol, We'll sister, I wish you lived nearby, we could get together and have the best studies!
God bless you sis!
Even though I personally regret not reading the whole Bible much sooner, reading the Gospels over and over definitely worked in my life. I'm glad that your husband is finding the blessings in the rest of the New Testament :) And that's great about memorizing the Ten Commandments. I had to think if I could name them, and I do know them, but I'm not entirely sure about their order. I'll have to go check. It's not like there are that many of them that they're hard to remember. The Ten Commandments surely are our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ! I know they stayed with me in my childhood and ever since. It's easy to almost forget about them, though, since they're often an early lesson in our lives. Thank you for the reminder of their importance! And I hope and pray that your son's girlfriend comes to believe in the Lord!
And no problem about that mix-up. Lol. It's telling me I still need to find another picture, which I'm going to! Steemit is something of an overwhelming place with all that new users have to consider and try to figure out, so while my user photo has been a priority it's not been one of the top ones. Still it's good for people to know who they're talking to, so I'm going to keep on it now. I wish you lived nearby too! It would be great to study together in person. I'm very glad that we have the internet and can study together here. I'm thankful for the internet coming along because of society breaking down in so many ways and Christianity being rejected by so many people. Like I said, it was finding Christians on the internet that even led me to read the Bible, and I've been blessed online in many other ways too. And now here with Steemit. I'm very blessed by our studying together here. God bless you, too, sis!
Thank you so much for your prayers for my son's girlfriend. She listens when we read, and I can tell that she is paying attention, that's a real blessing.
I'm very blessed by meeting other believers on the internet too, and here on steemit. There are so many who share God's word, and "His word won't return void." I listened to a brother sing a song in a post yesterday, and it blessed by heart so much. Just seeing how God is moving in the lives of people is such a blessing.
There are all kinds of study tools online, which I've used over the years, from Strong's Concordance, the Interlinear Bible, and even places where we can do verse comparisons for edification.
I completely agree, we as Christians are very blessed today to have all of these tools available.
I wanted to add that I regret not reading it much sooner too. There's so much in the scriptures, and there is always more to learn. I've been trying to catch up for the past several years.
God bless you too!
You're welcome. I want to write more but I'll have to wait until later. Right now due to some difficult circumstances I'm dealing with, my sleeping time has been all reversed and by morning it's getting hard for me to give much thought to anything. But I'll reply later. God bless!
Amen to the help and fellowship we get from the internet. I have to say it has its downsides too, in people spending more time with screens and less time with actual people and building community. But it's the technology today, and the Lord works through it and we can use it for godly purposes.
You're right, even in terms of coming together in worship, for Christians, that's one element that is difficult on the Internet.
I used to work nights and it's hard to get much rest during the day. I hope that you are able to do that. You're in my prayers.