No Room
"A heart that hides Your Word so
that sin will not come in…"
(from the lyrics of the worship song "A Pure Heart")
One amazing thing about the Sars
virus is that no medicine and antibiotics can destroy it. It will
have to die itself. The virus will attach itself to a living cell,
called a host cell. It will invade and kill the normal cell and turn
the cell's genetic material from its normal function to producing
the virus itself.
When the environment permits the
virus to live, it will multiply. But when the environment does not
permit its growth by refusing it food nor hosting it nor allowing it
to multiply, the virus will die its natural and quick death.
When a heart is so full of Sin,
it has no room for the Son. But when a heart is so full of the Son,
there is no room for Sin.
One early Christian, Ignatius of
Antioch, faced martyrdom with great eagerness and hope. He wrote
this to encourage the believers:
I hope to
obtain by your prayers, the privilege of fighting with the
beasts of Rome. Suffer me to be eaten by the beasts, that I may
be found the pure bread of Christ. Entice the wild beasts that
they may become my tomb, and leave no trace of my body. Then
shall I truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world
shall not even see my body.
When the world
shall not even see my body. The world is not found worthy of such
people. Truly, Ignatius was in the world, but not of the world!
Undefiled and unstoppable! A true disciple of Jesus. No amount of
wealth can convince him to do otherwise.
"A Rabbi
asked 'since I have learnt the whole of Torah may I now study
Greek philosophy?'," the reply came "'This book of Torah shall
not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate in it day
and night (Joshua 1.8)', 'now go and search out at which hour it
is neither day nor night and devote it to the study of Greek
philosophy'" (Mishnah, Menachoth, 99b)
Studying the pure Word of
God is a lost art in our Christian circles. We have so many other
books and literature flooding our bookstores and libraries. The Holy
Bible is often neglected and given a lesser priority. Without meditating on the pure
Word of God, we will not learn the fear of the Lord as we do not
have the Word written in our hearts. And we will have room for
errors.
We have heard very often how some Christians
and preachers use the name of the Lord to substantiate everything
they say. "The Lord this" and "the Lord that." This is not being obedient to the third
commandment which forbids taking the name of the Lord in vain.
The Word of the Lord can stand
alone with or without the use of the name of the Lord. The book of
Esther is one great example. Not once was the name of
God
mentioned throughout the whole book but the presence of the Lord was
evident in all the verses and everything in between.
The secret of the LORD is with
those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant (Psalm
25:14). One evident fear of the Lord is the reverence and honour
given to His name. When we have this fear of the Lord, we dare not
do anything which is not worthy of His name. Fully occupied with
Christ leaving no room for the evil one. Let Christ increases and
let self decreases.
Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep His commandments:
for this is the whole duty of man.
(Ecc
12:13)