I was trying out a new bread lame. Though the word lame looks like you would pronounce it /lām/, it’s derived from a French word for blade and is pronounced “lahm” with a silent e. Nowadays, I pronounce it /lām/ anyway. I will explain.
A bread lame is a double sided, razor-sharp tool designed to slash through the dough before baking to allow for the best loaf expansion. Without scoring the dough, you never quite know what shape the loaf will be when it comes out of the oven.
I picked up the new bread lame to score my bread before putting it in the steaming oven. I pushed down on the lame firmly to make the cut and slice a nice arch around the upper edge of the loaf to create the perfect ear. There was a problem.
I sliced more than just the sourdough. I sliced my finger wide open. Rather than putting pressure toward the back of the lame on the plastic piece that held one of the razor’s edges (where you are supposed to apply the pressure), without thinking, I put my index finger on top of the lame—which happened to be one full side of the razor blade. Before I even thought about what I was doing, I pushed down firmly and sliced the bread with one side of the bread lame and my finger with the other. I cut top to bottom, right through my fingerprints. It was not my wisest moment. It hurt. I thought to myself, “how lame”, and threw the bread lame “Lahm” away and the entire loaf of uncooked bread with it.
Suddenly, it felt as though there was another cook in the kitchen. I cut more than my finger that morning. My heart was cut too. Hebrews 4:12 quickly came to my mind as I ran for a paper towel. I stood over the kitchen sink washing the cut with water and reciting, “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” (ESV).
A question came to my mind, “Does the Word of God that is living and active pierce my thoughts and intentions like this razor blade so quickly did? Or am I calloused?” Some versions of this Scripture say the Word of God is quick and powerful, meaning it swiftly grabs our conscience and cuts straight to the heart. Quick and powerful or living and active—these are not passive words. The fact that this Scripture describes the Word as sharper than any two-edged sword means it cuts completely, both ways.
In Ephesians 6:17 when the Bible describes putting on the armor of God it also talks about a sword saying, “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is something we are to arm ourselves with all the time.
These may be more popular verses, but are you familiar with the reference in Revelation 1?
Revelation 1:9-18 says, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades,” (ESV).
In this vision, Christ appeared with a sharp, two-edged sword coming from His mouth. A sword that will destroy death, deceit, despair, disaster, and destruction. A sharp, two-edged sword that will demolish sin and put it in its rightful place in the pit of hell for all eternity.
Is God’s Word piercing your heart like a two-edged sword or a double-edged razor blade? I will never touch a bread lame the same way again. It marked me. Does God’s Word mark you in the same way?
How can you make Monumental Moments and live to multiply His movement today?
