In the Old Testament, the Lord instructed the Israelites to bind His word on themselves and surround themselves with His precepts (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
Solomon instructed the same:
"My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
"Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
"Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart." (Proverbs 7: 1-3)
He had to instruct them to do this because before the Cross man had hard a heart, hearts of stone bent on law-keeping.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees about the state of their hearts:
" Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." (Matthew 19:8)
Today, because we have received a new heart, a soft heart, built on the gospel (Ezekiel 11: 19), we have received His law, and through the Power of the Holy Spirit, we are led to live a life of obedience!
"Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." (2 Corinthians 3:3)
As long as we let the Word of God take root in our hearts, made soft through God's saving grace, then we can do all things!
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)
Our hearts must be ready soil, tilled with the grace of God:
James discussed this when he wrote the twelve tribes of Israel:
"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21)
In this verse, "engrafted" means "implanted", like a seed.
Connect this powerful truth with the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4: 14-20), through which all the other Parables are explained, "The sower soweth the word," then Jesus declares afterwards. . .
"And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred." (v. 20)
When we appreciate the fullness of what Jesus has taught his disciples (that includes you and me!), we see that indeed, God's word literally bears fruit in our lives. We allow our hearts to be softened with the gospel of grace, which in turn allows the Word to penetrate deep within us, and bear fruit:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." (John 15:4)
Let the Word of God take root in your heart, and watch what Jesus does, behold what the Spirit of God bears in your life!
Solomon instructed the same:
"My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
"Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
"Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart." (Proverbs 7: 1-3)
He had to instruct them to do this because before the Cross man had hard a heart, hearts of stone bent on law-keeping.
Jesus confronted the Pharisees about the state of their hearts:
" Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so." (Matthew 19:8)
Today, because we have received a new heart, a soft heart, built on the gospel (Ezekiel 11: 19), we have received His law, and through the Power of the Holy Spirit, we are led to live a life of obedience!
"Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." (2 Corinthians 3:3)
As long as we let the Word of God take root in our hearts, made soft through God's saving grace, then we can do all things!
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)
Our hearts must be ready soil, tilled with the grace of God:
James discussed this when he wrote the twelve tribes of Israel:
"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21)
In this verse, "engrafted" means "implanted", like a seed.
Connect this powerful truth with the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4: 14-20), through which all the other Parables are explained, "The sower soweth the word," then Jesus declares afterwards. . .
"And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred." (v. 20)
When we appreciate the fullness of what Jesus has taught his disciples (that includes you and me!), we see that indeed, God's word literally bears fruit in our lives. We allow our hearts to be softened with the gospel of grace, which in turn allows the Word to penetrate deep within us, and bear fruit:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." (John 15:4)
Let the Word of God take root in your heart, and watch what Jesus does, behold what the Spirit of God bears in your life!
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