"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words abide forever." - MATTHEW 24:35

     Two things are at the very heart of it all: 1. "The sum of Your Word is truth". 2. "And every one of Your righteous rules endures forever." (Psalm 119:160)

1. Part A. "The Sum of Your Word is Truth"

     Seven words. That's all. And at the VERY CENTRE of these seven words, as with the centre of everything in both life and time, is "Your Word." This patently true reality, that of the Word being at the very centre of everything, is in itself an all-embracing, enduring truth. The same seven words again, and at their VERY HEART, as with all things, resides "Your Word." This compelling truth applies whether we mean "universally", or whether we mean "individually". Universally, the Word is at the heart of all creation. Fact. And individually, it also takes the Word to get to the very heart of any matter. Fact. "For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the HEART." (Hebrews 4:12). In fact, the heart IS the ultimate focus of the Word. The HEART is at the very heart and centre of the Word. The Word desires and covenants to not only write itself upon the heart of man (Jeremiah 31:33), but it also promises, in the same breath, to give us a BRAND NEW heart. And at the same time, a heart not of stone (being cold, dead), but one of flesh (being warm, alive) (Ezekiel 36:26). Another enduring, ironclad truth is that only the perfect work (seven again) of God's Word is capable of accomplishing anything akin to endowing a person with a brand new heart, or to bringing what is in its trespasses already certifiably dead into vital and active life.

     Last night, I had a peculiar dream. I dreamed of entire passages of words being literally etched into the tips of my fingers, where the words were using the actual skin of my fingers as their scaffolding, and the fingerprints as their writing lines. The words were not simply written "on top" of the skin of the fingers. They were physically etched in white skin into my skin, effectively becoming a living part of the skin, thereby becoming as one with the skin. Then today I read in Proverbs 7:3, "Bind them (the Word) on your FINGERS; write them on the tablet of your heart." And then again in Deuteronomy 11:18, "Fix these words in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your HANDS and bind them on your foreheads." Tie the Word as symbols on your hands. What a dream. What a living, breathing Word we serve. At the heart of absolutely everything, is His Word. And likewise, in turn, His Word should simultaneously be front and centre of all our hearts too. So that wherever we go, whose ever lives we touch, and whatever we do, in the daily operation of our surrendered life, we should leave nothing but the very fingerprints of His Word, the enduring Truth. And even more fitting, our lives get to leave "God's touch", "His fingerprints", not our own, meaning that He is glorified in our lives. He alone takes centre stage, not us.

     Seven words. Nothing more. And the sum of which remains nothing less than simply astonishing truth. With God, decidedly nothing is ever coincidental. From the very word go (no pun intended), EVERYTHING in God's style, and His nature, and in His way, and throughout His design, is intentional, instructional and purposeful. One scripture, two parts. Part A, seven amazing words. An object lesson in "the sum of". And simultaneously, a quintessential display of "truth". From start to finish, "The sum of Your Word is truth" is entirely literal as well as every bit expository. In expository terms, the "key" to arriving at the sum's result is, unsurprisingly now, "Your Word". And the recurring, never-changing result is always "the truth". Of prime importance, in the same way, the Word is just as it always has been, and just as it always shall be, the MASTER KEY to the keys to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:9). The Word is the decisive key that crucially unlocks the heart's treasure chest of the truth. This is yet another enduring truth and righteous rule. In other words, to get to the grand prize of the truth, to get hold of the much-desired end result of the truth, it all BEGINS with the Word. In fact, it ALL always begins, and always has begun, with the Word. For from the very outset, ringing true with a tuning fork's clang of clarity, the Living Word clearly declares that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1). This, in itself, sums it all up too. We could just end there. Make that statement, and walk away. And the integral result, the sum, would still be, and still remains nothing but: THE TRUTH. Absolute, irrefutable, and glorified truth.

     But our God, El Shaddai, a name mentioned "seven times" in the Word, is the God of abundance. He delights in His Fatherly provision. He cares for the wellbeing of His children. So He bequeaths unto us personally His Living Word, His Son. He bequeaths unto us the Spirit of His Word, Ruach Hako'desh. And He bequeaths unto us His written Word. Abundance. And so, the sum of His immortal, enduring truth, rather than a function of seven words only, it becomes instead one of seven hundred and fifty thousand words. TRUTH in abundance. Each word adding "truth TO truth", and "truth UPON truth", so that in the end, our cup literally OVERFLOWS with His magnificent, faultless truth.

2. Part B. "And every one of Your righteous rules endures forever."

     If every one of His righteous rules endures forever, then WE too will endure forever. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words abide forever." (Matt 24:35). For we now have the enduring Truth inextricably infused within the DNA of each and everyone of us. It is EVEN in our fingertips. We have daily added truth unto ourselves. Truth UPON beautiful truth. Truth UNTO unshakable truth. We have dug in our tent pegs. We have bound ourselves up in the integrity and substance of truth. And it is a "righteous rule". It cannot lie. It is an abiding moral absolute. And as a righteous rule, it endures forever. "Your righteousness is everlasting, and your law is true." (Psalm 119:142).

     Furthermore, for based once again upon yet another cardinal truth, we SHALL endure forever, for yet another written righteous rule declares that "only the righteous shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). And only them that see God are they who "endure forever". Only "the righteous" shall enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:8). We are bound up with His righteousness. His truth is our righteousness. And His truth SHALL set us free. "Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32).

     There are 31,172 enduring rules of righteousness by which we bind ourselves, with the active cords of truth, unwaveringly unto eternity. And at the very heart of the Bible, right at the centre of the Bible, the most middle verse, the verse that should be the most middle and explicit centrepiece of both our hearts and souls, is the righteous rule of Psalm 103:1, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; And ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME, bless His holy name!”

     And when it comes to our heart, the centre of our essential being, the righteous rule of the Word further elaborates upon, and sets out the explicit tenor of our hearts now made of flesh, in such increasingly and incrementally endearing and enduring ways:

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:13

"My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity." - Proverbs 3:1-2

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." - Proverbs 4:23

"May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." - Psalm 20:4

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4

     May the desires of each of our hearts, forever and for always, be to know the length and the breadth, the height and the depth of Your love, LORD, and the fullness of Your wisdom, these together being the living, breathing, and forever-enduring truth. This we ask and pray, and thank You for, in the hallowed and holy name of Jesus. Amen and amen.

- To God be all the glory. Forever and ever. Amen and amen.