Word.

My sophomore year of high school I fell in love with reading scripture, and I set out with the goal to read the entire Bible: one year turned to two, two turned to three, three turned to four - and now, almost five years later, I have finally finished reading and annotating the whole Bible! This was a major accomplishment for me, but not one that had a finite ending, because as soon as I finished I wanted to start again.

That is the beauty of reading scripture: once we start, the desire becomes a hunger, which becomes an insatiable starvation for intimacy with the Lord, that can only be satiated through reading more scripture.

So, this week I started back over in Genesis - one of the wonderful things about reading God's words to us, is that we can read it over and over again, in the exact same scriptures, and gain a new meaning every time because the Bible is a living breathing entity! It is God's way of sharing His words with us, and when paired with the Holy Spirit, it is a way for us to commune with the Lord and hear back from Him!

Yahweh is a personal God, and so very different than every false idol the world wants us to grab on to: where their temples are built to keep people out, Christ welcomes us in. He opens His arms and calls us deeper into connection with Him - He desires to be one with us and restore us to the way things once were before sin entered the world.

Many people have noticed in Genesis how things were "very good" when God first made them, when Adam and Eve were simply enamoured by the Lord and felt no shame. Then, when Adam and Eve sinned, the first thing that they tried to do was cover themselves up with leaves. And just like we still do, their attempts at human compensation for the mistakes they made fell short:

"The Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”"

Genesis 3:9-13

God then proceeds to explain to them what the punishments for their transgressions are, and in the end, He ultimately casts them from the Garden. Not because He wanted true and permanent separation, to end this connection they once shared, but to be a good Father: protect them, keep them safe, and happy, and healthy, because things needed to look different now that sin was a part of the world. God found a way to mend what man had broken:

"The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

Genesis 3:21-24

An angel holding a flaming sword was put in place to separate man from God - and now He gives us the Sword of the Spirit to wield when He welcomes us in to a relationship with Him. The things that once separated us from God, and made a gaping whole between us, are now bridged by Jesus' sacrifice and the Word of God. No longer do we have to feel as though we are fighting alone, or offer bloody sacrifices to be forgiven because all of that was taken care of on the cross! Instead, we can have instantaneous, personal connection, with the God of the Universe AND hear His voice!

This sword is described in Hebrews as: "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 word of God cuts through our flesh and refines us so that we may undergo sanctification and draw nearer to the Lord. It cuts away the desires and sins that separate us, and brings us closer to the "way things once were" - when we walked through a garden with the Lord and felt no shame.

And for anyone who thinks that may be the only reason we need the Bible, I ask you to think again: being the Sword of the Spirit, it is a part of the full armour of God, which we are called to put on daily in order to fight against the devil and his schemes (Ephesians 4:11).

When Paul was depicting the armour of God and what all goes in to being fully dressed, the Sword of the Spirit gets listed last - but this is not any indicator of significance. Paul understood the value of being dressed properly, but he also knew the significance of never leaving your sword behind.

It didn't matter how well prepared you were, if you marched off to battle and had no way to defend yourself. For a roman soldier, the shield is what helped you charge enemy lines, but the sword is what helped you defend yourself and win.

We cannot be passive in our fight against the devil, because he will not be an opponent who fights fair.

That is why the Lord equips us so thoroughly: He knows that He already defeated sin and the grave, and He wants you to know that too; to be able to march into battle every day, fully prepared, while knowing who wins in the end.

When we come to known the Lord, we are handed a weapon that not only vanquishes the darkness but brings us closer to the light: it is a sword sharper than any two edged-blade, it holds the power of both life and death, and it is intended to protect us from the evil that took us away in the first place.

Because all God desires is a pure, intentional relationship with us - and His word is a symbol of that.

It holds the story of His son's sacrifice, the promise to bring us back, and every covenant and commitment that He has long held since the beginning.

As a new year approaches, you may begin to evaluate your goals for the year - allow me to help you brainstorm by posing my own challenge: start reading and don't stop. Finish reading then read it again. Not because it's a "book", but because it is the living breathing word of God who wants to know you and be known - and it is the most fulfilling relationship you can ever have.

And it all starts with joining the winning side - you can't be handed a weapon until you enlist (and as a spoiler alert: the guy leading the charge is pretty awesome, because He already won).

Happy reading fellow soldiers,

Emma

"Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire."