God's Word Is Powerful

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful ... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12)

God Almighty does not bellow to the wide universe and have it come back as an empty echo through His holy ears. He has told us that His word going forth from His mouth does not ever return void and without results. God's word is always powerful and it needs no one to run around apologizing for it and thinking up clever ways to defend it.

The gospel ship, the ark of God, is not a ghost ship floating idly on the sea. It is fully manned with a faithful crew, the winds of the Holy Spirit in her sail, passengers who are free men and women, bound for a free port in a holy land!

Throughout this troubled old world, God has His saints and He knows them. They are washed in His blood, born of His Spirit. They are begotten of the Word of Truth, saved by the miracle of redemption. He will call them all home when the time comes.

What comforts me is the thought that we are being shaped here below into stones for the heavenly temple - that to be made like Him is the object of our earthly existence.

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A Mystical Birth

"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5)

The invisible birth of which John speaks is an act of God. John is talking about something beyond the physical birth that we know. The senses can touch the physical birth. When we are born into this world, those around us could see and feel and touch and hold and weigh us. They could wash and clothe and feed us.

But this invisible, mysterious birth of which John speaks has nothing to do with the flesh. It is of heaven. This birth is of the Spirit - a birth of another kind, a mystical birth.

If Jesus our Lord had talked merely about people being born physically into the world, He would never have been heard, and His teachings would not have been preserved in print. Physical birth is too common - everyone is born. But these people experienced a birth not of the body but of the heart. They were born not into time but into eternity. They were born not of earth but of heaven. They had an inward birth, a spiritual birth, a mysterious birth, a mystical birth!

God is in all things as being, as activity, as power. God gives birth in the soul alone, for though every creature bears God's mark, the soul is the natural image of God.

~A. W. Tozer~