Hebrews 4:12 English Standard Version (ESV) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Did the first century church understand that bone marrow is the blood factory of our bodies? Probably not. God knew and He authored these words that give us deeper understanding than just pieces parts.

We could not live without bone marrow. Certain cancer treatments require bone marrow transplants as a cure. We did not discover that for the longest time, but God always knew because He designed us.

It is so easy to glaze over scriptures with acceptance without coming to a sincere appreciation of everything God has put into motion.

Think about that as we do our bible studies and come to a deeper appreciation of God’s Word, Jesus Christ that dwells in our hearts by faith. This transforms the notion of Christ on the throne of heaven into a living and active part of our lives. His blood shed for us to give us life by faith is our spiritual bone marrow.

Psalm 139:13 English Standard Version (ESV) For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

God is an active agent in our lives in ways we take for granted and doing so we fail to give Him praise and honor in even the hidden parts that cause us to live by faith. Science has given us a better understanding of how our bodies function all the way down to individual strands of our DNA. God knew all that when He knitted us together with those DNA strands.

We are not an accident of nature.

If we accept that we are not an accident then we should understand the grand design that gives place for God to be an active partner in living by faith in Christ.

It is not a happy accident that God has made Himself known to us. It is a valued part of His grand design.

Those antichrists around us deny the designer.

We honor Him in how we live.

Ephesians 1:17-19 English Standard Version

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

There are smarts, and educated, but neither is enlightened.

Having the eyes of our hearts enlightened is a condition in which we recognize that the condition of our hearts changes as we mature in Christ, becoming what Christ needs us to be.

The immeasurable greatness of His power will not be released from a vessel that is not fit to pore it out.

What hope is this for us if it is not the promises of God to work in us that which is seemly?

We have been declared righteous but we will not activate that righteousness without coming to terms with the fact that He is conforming us into vessels fit for use.

Romans 9:21-23 English Standard Version

21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

We are vessels of mercy who have surrender to Christ by faith and allowed Him to mold us into that which will bring honor and glory to the Father according to His will.

We think we are so smart. We become well read and we study His Word every day thinking that the exercise itself is enough. That is pride in performance. It is not until our eyes of understanding are awakened that we recognize that it is the indwelling presence of God that has changed us and not we ourselves.

I have heard many say “God has put it on my heart” some rightly so, some from convincing themselves rather than God convicting them.

Convicted or convinced, which is better?