What a wonderful age we live in – so many medical marvels and new technologies. It seems that every time I have to go to the hospital for something, they’ve got some brand-new new-fangled machine to measure this or x-ray that. I learned about one such machine recently. Actually, it was invented some years ago, but it’s new to me – this particular high-tech machine performed electron beam tomography. Now I know, it sounds like something from Star Trek, like there’s Scotty at the controls while Captain Kirk is on Planet Krypton (no, that’s Superman, I think), anyway… and Scotty beams you up and you materialize back safe and sound at the Starship Enterprise with that electron beam tomography.
Well, electron beam tomography, or as they call it EBT, doesn’t do the Star Trek thing, but it’s close. An EBT is an ultra-sophisticated CAT-scan which is able to capture moving images of body organs—especially the heart—organs that are in constant motion. The medical tech experts will tell you that the EBT performs a complete, complex cycle of images with every heartbeat, producing them at 1/20th of a second. Wow! This allows doctors to look at the human heart, top to bottom, in ultra-thin horizontal slices of both tissue and time. Again, what’s amazing is that this special CAT-scan records these paper-thin images of slices of the heart while it’s beating, while it’s moving. I think that’s amazing!
And I'll tell you what else is amazing. The Bible does the same thing with our hearts. Hebrews 4 tells us that the Word of God is “…Living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Now, tell me that doesn’t sound like electron beam tomography! At least, the sort that God is an expert at, right?
Because, friend, our hearts are constantly in motion – I don’t mean organically, in the medical sense; I mean in the spiritual sense. Our hearts are always moving, planning, weighing, deciding, choosing… our desires, our yearnings -- never at rest. But even while we are thinking, even while we are choosing or weighing a certain desire, even when – and especially when we are tempted – God applies His Word like an EBT, giving our conscience a membrane-thin cutting of our soul. Hold that desire or that longing or yearning, that decision or motive… you hold it to the light and you can see right through it, like India paper.
So don’t resist the razor-sharp and very, very accurate picture which the Word of God takes of your heart. Don’t think the Bible’s not on target when your soul is laid bare, membrane thin, because you want a healthy heart. You want your soul to be fit, well and vigorous. So, let God do His Electron Beam Tomography… after all, He is the Great Physician who knows your heart best.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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