Opening up His mouth

We're currently having, for now, the most delightful snowstorm. It's 5 p.m. and I just came back from a walk in the neighborhood with snow hitting my face and hair. There was hardly any wind, making it feel balmy with the humidity.

It's quickly getting dark now and it couldn't be more glorious to keep turning my eyes toward the back yard from my recliner perch inside the family room looking out through the sliding glass doors to the panoramic view provided by our enclosed sunroom. You wouldn't know there was a problem in the world with everything so quiet, calm and pristinely untouched.

While I was walking, enjoying the fact that I no longer wear the medical boot and can traverse cement streets, I was reminded of the half-dozen times when I lived in Manhattan (1999-2007) that I would walk home real late (sometimes after 1 a.m.) from hearing live music with friends on the Upper East Side, not ever wanting a cab ride, and decide to cross through Central Park to enjoy the falling snow.

I’d literally be the only one around in some spots and have my footprints in the snow be the only fresh ones there were. It was unbelievable to me that I was able to do things like that in Manhattan without any real fear.

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There's someone I encounter in my job sporadically who I learn more and more about (were only able to chat for 10 minutes or so each meeting). She is a black woman in her 70s who was raised on the south side of Chicago.

Recently we were comparing notes about Chicago and when she told me she was unafraid to walk on some of the meanest streets, even inside and near projects, I told her that I did several stories as a journalist where I interviewed people at the projects, specifically the Robert Taylor Homes, Cabrini Green and Rockwell Gardens.

Fear is such a funny thing. I've been fairly fearless at times when it has come to my physical well-being. In fact, I had a friend help me pick a ground-floor apartment, sight unseen, in the heart of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, after I first learned I got my job in Manhattan. My subway stop for the C Train was Lafayette Avenue! You talk about a dicey terminal.

The thing about me that I've wanted to be rid of so bad in my life is the fear of rejection. It's pretty much followed me since I was a grade-schooler.

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Here’s the ending to my pastor Alex Kurz’ Sunday School study this morning:

When we see the issue of the mouth being open, yeah, it’s great to converse, isn’t it? But in a spiritual sense, it’s communicating something very specific.

Psalm 78: [1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

Now, we know who the “my people” is in the Book of Psalms. The nation of Israel. Can you appreciate the exclamation of passion here. “O” is not a word; it’s a sound. It’s a sound that typifies the heartfelt attitude.

When we find the expression, “I am opening my mouth,” specifically it’s communicating a system of doctrine.

We’re all familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5: [1] And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
[2] And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Matthew 13:35: [35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

The Lord Jesus is opening up His mouth in parables; He’s teaching them some truths that are not available regarding His rejection and His impending exile as a rejected Messiah.

The point is He borrows Psalm 78 and He applies it to His work of ministry as Israel’s Messiah. He’s doing exactly what we just read in Matthew 5.

He opened His mouth and He’s teaching; He’s instructing His people. That’s what Paul’s communicating there to the Corinthians: “My mouth is open; I’m trying to communicate something.”

Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 4:29: [29] Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

That was Paul’s desire. “When I open my mouth, ye Corinthians, I have a deep well of doctrine and I want to communicate the system of doctrine to you for YOUR edification.”

Ephesians 6: [19] And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
[20] For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Paul, he’s ready; he’s prepared to communicate the advanced doctrine. The meat doctrine, the grace doctrine. He wants to continue to see this spiritual development there at Corinth.

II Corinthians 6: [11] O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
[12] Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
[13] Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

Think about that—to have that enlarged heart. Devotionally, it represents this swelling, abounding, joyful generosity. Paul, without question, had this inflated view of generosity toward his children, but there’s a doctrinal point to be made.

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Notice in I Kings 4 is a wonderful illustration of having an enlarged heart and it isn’t just, “Hey, I hope your heart’s big enough to love truly.”

In this passage is Solomon. Short of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was the wisest man in human history.

I Kings 4: [29] And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

The largeness of heart is not a reference to Solomon having the greatest capacity to love, or the greatest capacity to demonstrate compassion.

The largeness of heart has to do with this swelling capacity of wisdom; this swelling capacity of understanding.

There’s this boundless capacity that King Solomon possessed, both humanly speaking and divinely speaking. He had this vast comprehensive awareness of what God was doing; of what God was preparing, not only for him, but the nation of Israel.

Verse 30: [30] And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
[31] For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.

The largeness of heart is that heart that is inflated with the wisdom of God and the heart is now going to be the mechanism that’s going to properly apply the understanding and knowledge.

In other words, God FILLED the heart of Solomon with wisdom and understanding. When Paul says, “Our heart is enlarged,” Paul possessed SO MUCH knowledge and wisdom and understanding that was given to him directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s saying to the Corinthians, “I want to deposit it all; I want to place into YOUR heart.” He wanted the heart of the Corinthians to be FILLED with the deep understanding and knowledge of all that God’s doing.

And what’s the problem? With the Corinthians, there’s no room, there’s no room. And with Paul, again, there’s a rebuke. He’s saying, “Open it up. Let me in. Not just let me in personally, devotionally. Let me in as a father who wants to share this deep wealth of understanding.”