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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:9-12

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

Beth, the second strophe of Psalm 119, begins with a very well known and oft quoted verse. Take a look at it for yourself in Psalm 119:9-12:

Psalm 119:9-12

The most dominant theme that comes through in this second stanza is one of joy and praise. In these four verses, the psalmist writes about holding fast to the Word of God, and then ends with an exclamation of praise in verse 11. And where does this delight and joy find its source? In God’s Word.

This passage starts off with a simple question: How are we to live a holy life? How are we to keep ourselves pure? The answer is immediately given, and is found in living our lives in accordance with the Word of God.

As a youth minister, I cannot count the number of times I heard people say something to the effect of, “I want to enjoy my life while I am young. I’ll consider church and Christianity when I’m older.” But the psalmist reverses that, and says that the way to purity begins when we are young, or at least as young as we can possibly be. This does not discount the possibility of people coming to know God late in life, but rather states the principle that we need to turn to God now, before another moment goes by, as soon as possible. Or, as Hebrews 3 tells us, this is a decision to make today.

The next couple of verses show the lengths we are to go to in order to seek after God’s Word and make it a priority in our lives. Verse two tells us to seek it with all our hearts. Verse three states that we must hide it in our hearts. Doing so will have the effect of helping us not to stray, and helping us to avoid sin.

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Examining The 3:16s Of The Bible

Some Important Scriptures At Similar References

We are starting a new series this weekend at our church, and it is different than anything I have ever tried before.

Examining The 3:16s Of The Bible

Typically, I prefer to preach expositorily, where we take a passage and examine what it has to say, digging out the nuggets of truth in what God is saying through that particular passage. And how I typically like to do that is by working through a book completely, which is what I have done several times in the past, with books like Hebrews or Colossians, or the Gospel of John.

When I do preach a topical series, I preach on one topic, and then I preach expository sermons on each of the passages we look at that talk about that topic. I did this with our Marriage Matters series, for example, and a couple of financial series.

But this series is kind of different. It’s different in the fact that we will be looking at a completely different topic each week, and no two are the same. We will still take a deep, expository look at each passage, but the only common denominator in this series is where each of those passages are located in the Bible.

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Coffee Break – 01.22.2018

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1874, a patent was issued to Samuel W. Francis for the spork. In 1901, Queen Victoria of England died after reigning for nearly 64 years. Edward VII, her son, succeeded her. And in 1930, excavation began for the Empire State Building in New York City.

Coffee Break

Today Is National Blonde Brownie Day!
You need to make some blondies, and come right on over!

How to Make Iced Coffee in a Chemex – My favorite method of making coffee is definitely my Chemex, but I typically use it to make a hot pourover. But did you know you can use it to make iced coffee as well? This article explains how, and you can grab a Chemex here.

Can You Identify These Cities From Their Light Signatures? – I got most of these correct. Can you?

The Awkward 17th-Century Dating Practice That Saw Teens Get Bundled Into Bags – Here is an interesting historical article about the practice of bundling, although it may need a bit of fact-checking. The article mentions the biblical book of Ruth, but doesn’t accurately depict what happened in it. Regardless, it’s an interesting perspective on a bit of history.

Every State In The US – This is a fascinating video that makes a connection from state to state to cover all 50. While it is essentially an ad, it’s still really interesting.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:5-8

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

In the second half of the first strophe of Psalm 119, the writer describes his longing for God’s Word, and ends with a commitment of obedience. Take a look at this passage for yourself in Psalm 119:5-8.

Psalm 119:5-8

Most of the time, when you read something, you expect the author to build his case and then, at the end, present his conclusion. But Psalm does just the opposite. In this first strophe, we see the introduction to the entire passage in the first three verses, but we also see the crux of the entire thing in verse 8, where the writer, likely David (although Hezekiah, Ezra and Daniel are also possibilities), states his commitment to obedience to God’s commands.

Since the first three verses are the introduction, the rest of this stanza is directly connected to it. God has set the standard for obedience to his decrees, and the psalmist expresses his desire to comply. In order to do so, he realizes that there must be a strong will to obey. In verse 5, he wished his ways to be “steadfast” or “established,” which means to be prepared, to make firm, to be resolved to stand firm upon God’s commands.

Because of his integrity in this matter, the writer knows that no shame will result. And this is true: standing firm upon God’s Word, and holding tightly to his values will never result in shame, but praise and joy will be the result, just as we see in verse 7.

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Book Review – Unimaginable by Jeremiah J. Johnston

UnimaginableI have long been a history buff. And one of the genres I enjoy within the category of history is the “what if” idea, such as, “What if this had happened instead of that?” That is kind of the take on history that Jeremiah Johnston uses in his book Unimaginable.

First of all, I expected something a bit different than what Johnston presents here. I’m not sure what I really expected, maybe something more imaginative, more fictional, but that’s not the purpose of this book. Instead, what Johnston has done is look at history and show what it would look like if Christianity did not exist. What I did not expect, perhaps blindly on my part, is that he would draw from history those things which already point to what it would look like in such a world.

That sounds a bit confusing, and I’m not sure how to articulate it very clearly. Maybe an example would help. Without Christianity in our world, there would be no value to the human life. And if life holds no value, then things such as slavery, abortion, euthanasia, communism, fascism, and more would run unhindered. But we have already seen in history how those kinds of things have affected the lives of millions. Slavery is an institution we have fought for ages, around the world in various forms. Abortions occur in epidemic proportions. Communism and fascism have cost the lives of countless millions of people. And the list could go on.

It’s kind of depressing. Johnston shows what a world without Christianity would look like, and we see that it is our world.