Scripture
I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
~Psalm 119:11, NLT
Quote
It is easier to make a promise than to keep one and it is easier to learn the word of God than to live the word of God.
~Ya’akov
In the second stanza of Psalm 119, every verse begins with the Hebrew letter ‘beth’ which is comparable to our letter B. Every stanza is going to be about the Word of God. Again the emphasis in verse 9 is on obedience–We are to live the word of God. We are to incarnate the word by putting it into practice. In order for us to live the word of God; we must treasure the word of God. We do this through memorization. Then we are to declare the word of God [v.13], rejoice in the word of God [v.14], meditate on the word of God [15] and finally take delight in the word of God [v.16]. As we discussed yesterday, the WORD has rejuvenating power, renewing power, motivating power and cleansing or sanctifying power. Charles Spurgeon said, “I hold one single sentence out of God’s word to be more powerful than all the discoveries of all the learned men of all ages.” How does a young man stay pure? He baths daily in the word of God. In John 15:3, Jesus told His disciples…You have already been cleansed by the WORD that I have spoken to you. The word of God has sanctifying power. Someone said, “Sin will keep you from the word and the word will keep you from sin.”
I have complete confidence in Psalm 119:11…I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. I grew up in a totally different era, no TV, no video games, no cell phones. We did go to school but there were no computers. We went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. We learned and memorized scripture at all these venues. I learned to quote Psalm 100 at school. I learned to quote verses at R.A.’s on Wednesday night. I was in Mrs. Irene McGill’s Sunday School class and she was a drill Sargent. You did not walk into that class unless you had learned your verse for the week. We also did bible drills on Sunday night. I don’t think I would have made in through adolescence without knowing those verses. Every time a temptation presented itself, a verse came to mind.
Years ago, we took the pre-school to the breeding farm in Lawrence County. They had lions, tigers and all sorts of animals that they raised for zoos and such. They had a lion’s den with a half-dozen hungry lions. The woman giving us the tour was far too graphic and when we got to the lion’s den she said, “My husband goes to the sale barn each week and buys some calves, we put them in the lion’s den so the cats can learn to stalk their prey.” I almost threw up on the spot. What chance does a calf have in a lion’s den? Think of this world as the lion’s den. They are a lot of hungry predators out there. What chance does a young person have when they have no knowledge of the word of God? This is exactly why we do AWANA. It is a scripture memory ministry. The LORD spoke to me the day we visited the farm. From that day forth, I began planting the seed for AWANA. Our kids do not have a chance unless we equip them with the word of God. Spurgeon and Wycliffe were right, there is POWER in the word and if we follow its instructions, it will keep us from evil.
- I am sad to report that tragedy has struck the Bailey’s again: Charlie and Laura Deffenbaugh [my sister’s grandson] were awakened yesterday morning by Laura’s severe pain. She was ready to give birth to a son any day but something went wrong and Laura starting hemorrhaging. She lost a lot of blood and the baby. Laura was doing fair when I left yesterday. When I say fair, I speak of her physical condition. She and Charlie are grief-stricken. This is the second baby that they have lost just prior to birth. The first got tangled in the umbilical cord: a precious little girl. This baby was a little boy. Needless to say, they are devastated. Of course no one understands why this happened and I certainly have no answers but as I witnessed their grief for this precious child, I thought of the millions who have been aborted and there was no one there to grieve for them. This precious little boy is being grieved by a loving family. I wish all babies had what this little fellow had: a mom and dad who loved them deeply.
- I really like my glasses, my partial fits me fine, my hearing is working but how I miss my mind. I did remember that yesterday was Wednesday but I forgot that I was preaching. Holly reminded me at launch. Don’t misunderstand, I am excited about the opt, just a little absent-minded. We had a good crowd. If we could get adults to attend like the young people, we would have had a packed house.
- You know me, I watch almost no news but I could not sleep yesterday morning and I did watch just a few minutes of FOX and FRIENDS. Then on the way home from the hospital, I listened to El Rushbo who said one of the stupidest things I’ve every heard him say [but on another subject that I don’t have time to discuss] and he was talking about Harvey Weinstein the film maker from unholywood. Like practically all rich Jews, he is a big supporter of the democrats. He gave Hillary and Obama millions. Now they are throwing him under the bus because his sexual preditoring has been made public. Democrats are such hypocrites. Just one more case that supports my Caiaphas theory. Both Fox and Friends and Rush talked about the NFL. Joe David is looking like a prophet. Goodell and the owners are panicing: the ratings are down, sales of NFL apparrel are down, ticket sales are down, they are beginnng to feel the pinch and now they want to make some changes. They can make all the changes they want, I am through with them. I just think it is refreshing to see a big Corp get down on their knees. They seemed shocked that Trump could reach there base with one statment and they were not even aware of their offense to the folks who had been buying the tickets. They have been pandering to the left and the left doesn’t watch football. The people who supported Trump are your sports fans. I have no doubt that they will get it fixed and recover their base but the good news for me personally is: I don’t care whether they get it fixed or not. There has been no real change, they are just doing what they have to do to make money.