The story is told of how, when Abraham Lincoln sat for his presidential portrait, the painter asked if Lincoln would prefer that he paint out the president's facial warts. In a reply which has become almost a proverb, he replied simply, "Leave the warts in."

The Bible is a warts-in book.

It tells us of another Abraham, the father of the faith, called the friend of God. In his later years, this man showed such profound confidence in God and His word that he was obedient even to the point of offering to God his only son.

Yet he was not a perfect man.

When God called Abraham in Genesis 12, He told him to leave his fatherland, his father and his extended family, and that he proceed to the land that God would show him. Abraham left his fatherland, but he took his father and his family and did not go to the land which God was to show him (Acts 8:1). After his father's death, Abraham left Haran for the land God had called him to, but he took his nephew with him. Recruiting someone else to do the Lord's will with you ends in problems, and this was no exception. Abraham finally had to separate from his nephew Lot, and it was only then, when he had left fatherland, father, and family and was standing in the land to which God called him, that God said to him, "Lift up now your eyes..."

The story of Abraham is not the story of great man as much as it is the story of a great God working in the life of a man.

When we read of Jacob leaning on his staff and blessing Pharaoh, we are perhaps so moved by the quiet and deep spirituality of this godly man that we forget that this is the usurper that tricked his brother, deceived his father and tried to get the best of his uncle Laban. So much had happened through the dealing of God in this man's life that we can hardly recognize him in his later years.

Self-confident Moses, relying on his position and education, failed miserably in his first attempt to rescue Israel, killing a man and fleeing from judgment. Then, years later, his self-confidence totally shattered, he almost insists on refusing the call of God. Yet he is the man who God uses to deliver the nation, the man who is later called the meekest man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3).

David was a man after God's own heart, a man who started well and ended well. Yet the Bible is faithful to relate to us a devastating chapter: the horrific story of his adultery and the murder to which it led.

Impetuous, water-walking, Christ-denying Peter looked an unlikely candidate to become the Apostle to the circumcision when he was rebuking Jesus for being too negative (Matt. 16:22-24), but the author of 1st and 2nd Peter is a deeply transformed man.

The story of these men, and that of virtually all the believers presented in the Bible, have one thing in common: the Word of God faithfully relates their story, including their faults and failings. Their stories are all "warts in".

There are many things we can learn from that.

One is that these stories reaffirm the inspiration of Scripture. Were the Bible merely written by men, the heroes would be larger-than-life, inimitable, perfect in every way.

Another thing we learn is that our own failings are not insurmountable, final roadblocks to God´s dealing in our lives.

And there is another key lesson, one we learn when we ask ourselves, What made the difference in these men? How were these men able to recover from serious falls and get victory over plaguing habits and besetting sins? As we look at their lives, a consistent thread can be seen: With-ness leads to witness.

Mark 3:14-15 states:

"And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils"

Before preaching, before healing the sick and confronting devils, before the work and witness, they were called to be with Him.

Jesus declared that our message is born out of our personal fellowship with Him:

"What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops" (Matt. 10:27).

There is an inescapable element to spiritual maturity: Time. Time spent getting to know the Lord Jesus, time spent in His company, time invested in letting Him renew our minds with His Word.

We often hear Christians talk about "going witnessing", yet that term is not a Biblical term. We do not "go witnessing", as though it were an action we do at a set date and time, to be turned off when the next activity comes along. We are witnesses; witness is not what we do but what we are. And we grow in what we have witnessed as we spend more time with the One of whom we are witnesses. A witness testifies of that which he has seen and heard (Acts 4:20), and as we spend more time seeing what the Lord is doing and hearing from His Word, we have more to which we are witness, and our life reflects more of who He is. With-ness leads to witness.

Paul speaks about attending upon the Lord without distraction (1 Co. 7:35), and a cursory glance of society today will leave no doubt who has designed the fashion of this world. Today, distraction is the very essence of life, so that undistracted time for reflection or meditation is "down-time", unproductive, boring time that is to be avoided. An entire generation has grown up on distraction as the norm, as the most desirable trait and state.

And in the midst of this, we are invited to come apart, to hear what He whispers in our ear while with Him in the inner chamber, the secret room we share only with Him and, perhaps, a few fellow disciples (Mat. 6:6). Here is where our message is born, and here is where the secret of recovery from devastating failures is born. It's here that we learn victory over the besetting sins and it is here that we are witness to who Christ is and what He has done, is doing and will do. We come away from that closet refreshed as witnesses, with fresh insights and testimony to the Lord who has bought us. And we see His glory, we are transformed from glory to glory.

Moses, who failed at 40 and all but refused God at 80, said at 120:

"O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand"

What glorious things Moses had witnessed from being with the Lord during those 40 years, and how his life has been transformed! Time and again we see him alone with the Lord, and it is as he is alone with the Lord that he gets a fresh glimpse of His glory. And, Moses says, there is so much more to see that this is only the beginning! With-ness leads to witness.

Take time to be with Christ in the closed room, and as you do, pray for the men and women who are serving Christ as missionaries. There are as many distractions for them as there are anywhere else, and demands on their time can easily swallow up the time they need to be spending with the Lord.