1 Samuel 2:2

There is none holy like the Lord:
    for there is none besides You;
    there is no rock like our God.

Going Back to Psalm 119

Although we've moved on to a new verse, I have been looking at the entire Psalm 119 this week and had a few observations to share.


The verse we memorized, verse 11, is a statement of action & commitment from the writer. Throughout Psalm 119, this and other themes stand out to me including praise for the greatness of God's commandments, promises made by the writer to God, and requests for help made to God by the writer.


I wanted to share a list of other actions/commitments the writer made in regards to God's commandments - it is certainly not exhaustive, but combined with the act of storing the word in our hearts, as mentioned in verse 11, these are all actions that we should take as well.


1. stored up the word in his heart (v. 11)
2. fixed his eyes on the commandments (v. 6)
3. set God's rules before him and chosen the way of faithfulness (v. 30)
4. clings to the testimonies (v. 31)
5. hopes in God's rules (v. 43)
6. turns his feet to the commandments (v. 59)
7. hastens to keep the commandments (v. 60)


Through all of these actions described by the writer, it is evident that he places the highest value on God's word and strives to keep it front and center in his life.

Psalm 103:2-4

We're staying in Psalms for our next verse, but this time it's a psalm of praise.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
   and forget not all His benefits,
Who forgives all your iniquity,
   Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit,
   Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

Little Steps & Big Results

As many of you probably don’t know, my life has changed a great deal in the past couple months and it has forced me to reevaluate things. My heart was broken because, well, life happens. I knew I needed something to constantly remind me of God’s presence, and that I wasn’t ever as alone as I felt. I knew that memorizing verses would help me along the way.

This week, I was thinking on how I would go about memorizing these verses… I realized that I, in all honesty, look at my phone probably 100 times per day; whether it be to check the time, respond to a message, check my grades, or do whatever other silly insignificant thing that one does on their precious iPhones. I asked myself what would happen if I looked at my bible even half as many times per day as I look at my phone. So… I thought about a little change that would make The Word more central in my day than someone’s latest post on his or her social networking site.

I found a picture of the verse and made it my home screen photo. This way, every time I did check my phone, I looked down to see God’s Word first and foremost. This proved to be an awesome change to my typical scroll through Facebook or Twitter. Because of the habitual checking of my phone, the reminder was constant. Another thing I did was I scribbled and colored this short verse everywhere. Instead of checking my phone during downtime, I just doodled it more and more. Writing it over and over and having it in bold on my phone helped me memorize it and literally put it on my heart.

PSALM 119:11-- "I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

I love the idea of physically storing God’s word in our hearts. First off, the act of storing something is a verb that requires action and shows in and of itself that you treasure the very thing you are putting away… it implies safekeeping and utmost importance. God’s word should be what we treasure most and, because of this, we must place it somewhere at the very core of our beings, our true center of life, the deep pits of our red and beating hearts. Although some might think their phone is their life… the truth is His word is life.

His word is ever enduring… cell phones aren’t. His word can heal broken hearts… cell phones can’t.

Front and Center

Psalm 119:11 really summarizes what we're trying to do this year.

I don't think we generally sin out of ignorance, but having God's word in our heart, as opposed to the back of our minds, takes our knowledge to another, more practical level.

Think about things you've learned in school over the years. There's probably a lot you could recall if you really thought about it (the order of the planets or the formula for the area of a triangle), but that knowledge is different than the things that you use regularly, which can easily be recited.

To me, storing God's word in our hearts means that it is front and center and active in our minds. When we have that, we have God guiding our everyday decision making, which will help us to be more like Him.

Pslam 119:11 Printable

Psalm 119:11

I hope you have the fruit of the Spirit memorized and are ready for another verse! For the next two weeks we'll work on Psalm 119:11.
 

I have stored up Your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against You.

If you have any thoughts on this verse, feel free to share. I'd love to hear from y'all. :)

Bearing Good Fruit

I think sometimes we can gloss over lists like this in the Bible, but these are amazing qualities. I have some more than others, but I would love to be a person who exudes all of these things.

As we work to memorize some of God's word this year, I hope the result will be more Scripture popping into my head - both in challenging times and day to day situations - which will help me to bear these fruits in my life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
- Galatians 5:22-23

The Fruit of the Spirit printable

                                   

My attempt at some "Subway Art" let me know if you want the file. Trista shared a great strategy for grouping this list. The first three (love, joy peace) are all one syllable words, the next three are two syllables (patience kindness goodness), and the final three are three syllables and in alpha order (faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). Happy memorizing!                                                  

2014 Bible Challenge

I'm not sure about you, but I really don't have that many Bible verses memorized. I know principles and can paraphrase, but I rely mostly on my electronic Bible's search when I need to quote a verse.

In 2014 I'm hoping to change that by memorizing more Scripture. Every 2 weeks we'll have a verse posted to this blog. As you're working on memorizing it, I hope you'll post any thoughts or questions.

Looking forward to this journey!

Being Thankful

Because the 4th Thursday of November just rolled around I thought I would write a quick post about being thankful. 

It seems like every awards show when an actor, performer, or athlete wins a big award they have a long list of people they like to thank.  From their agent, to their cousin, to their grandma they don't want to leave anyone out.  However one name that is rarely mentioned is that of the Lord.  Most people today don't seem to know or care how the Lord has blessed them and provided them with opportunities to be successful. 

This attitude is nothing new.  In the 17th chapter of the book of Luke Jesus healed 10 lepers from a terrible and (sometimes) incurable disease.  Only one of the lepers thanked him and the passage indicates to us that Jesus expected the other 9 to come back and thank him. 

We should let God know that we are thankful for what he does for us and we should also thank our elders, preachers, teachers, etc. for what they do for us.  We should also thank one another for the help they provide us.

Comfort

I think the verses below provide great comfort.  In verse 3, we are told that he will answer us & give us strength.  Verse 8 reminds us that he has a plan for us, & it will be fulfilled with his steadfast, enduring love.  Let your comfort come from the Lord.

Psalm 138
3 On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.

8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.

Adjectives...

 ^{1 Peter 3:4}
but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

What 5 words would you use to describe yourself? Do you catch yourself leaning toward what you really are or what you know you should be? And isn't it wonderful when the lists match?! I guess the real test comes when someone else is asked to characterize you...

Making Choices

James 4:8a is a favorite verse. "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." Unfortunately my relationship with God isn't always what it needs to be. This verse is a reminder that if there's an issue with our relationship, it's my job to turn to Him. That's all I have to do, because He is always there.

In v7 we see how we can apply this idea. When the devil is tempting us or trying to bring us down, we first need to recognize what is happening. This may sound strange, but I think saying that the devil is causing you a problem is a great way to call out the fact that you have a choice to either give in to the devil or resist him and turn to God. If we choose God, it says that the devil will flee from you.

Thinking of it this way helps me to make better choices. You should give it a try. :)

Practice Makes Perfect

We have to practice Christianity to be good at it. This shouldn't be a surprise since the same also holds true for basically everything else we do in life, but I'm not sure we approach it that way.

We need to immerse ourselves in the Bible's teachings, just like we would if we were trying to learn a new language. And we have to keep practicing Christianity every day, because to really learn something you have to apply it to your life, not just read or hear about it. I think that is what James is saying in 1:22-25. "...being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Robin Hood

The Psalms aren't my favorite book in the Bible, because I'm not great with poetry and imagery, but Psalm 64 painted a vivid Robin Hood type image for me.

David is asking God to hide him from his enemies who are coming at him with figurative swords and arrows. I can picture David running from these guys and calling out to God. Then God steps up and David hides behind Him as He takes down the bad guys with His arrow.

Everyone who sees this fears the Lord and spreads the word about what happened. But the righteous rejoice because they see that they can call on God and take refuge in Him.

This works for us today too. We should pray for help & guidance in situations where we're facing enemies - whatever those my be - and be confident that God is looking out for us and will help us through those situations.

I think the key is knowing who to run to when you're being chased.

Be Still...

v10 of Psalm 46 is a favorite, I keep it on my desk at work.

It gives me perspective, so I don't get too stressed about things. God is more powerful than anything I can imagine and, fortunately, He is in control. :)

In my most recent reading of this Psalm, I noticed a footnote in v10 that referred to Ex 14:13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.

I guess that means the same phrase is used when Moses is about to part the Red Sea. God is mighty and can do everything from saving the Israelites to giving us an opportunity to go to Heaven. We just need to keep that in mind and put our trust in Him instead of worrying about what might be going on around us.

Philemon

The book of Philemon proves that even though you are forgiven of your sins when you are baptized that doesn't mean that you can avoid consequenes of your previous actions.  You can't be a fugitive from the law, suddenly become a christian, and then say that it is cool for me to keep running because I am now forgiven.  You can't be in an unscriptural marriage, become a christian, and then say that everything you did prior in your life doesn't matter in the sense that you can stay in the unscriptural marriage.

Becoming a christian means that you have to ask for forgiveness of people you have offended in the past and honestly suffer whatever consequences those actions brought.  It does not provide a license to simply say that was before I was a christian, so I don't need to apoligize, be honest, or make things right as best I can.

Think on these things...

I know this is from a few weeks ago, but I was without internet access & unable to post.



We can get so caught up in our thoughts & emotions, allowing them to take us down a non productive path & distract us from the work we should be doing. This creates an opportunity for the devil to fill our minds with lies & create confusion. For many years my aunt has started her day by quoting this verse & has always encouraged me to do the same. Back in January I finally decided to give it a try & focus on the words true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, & commendable. I began to look for the things in my life that represented these words & meditate upon God's goodness. Once I took the time to think on these things, I discovered that I didn't want to spoil these thoughts with earthly trash. I still have a long way to go, but this verse is a great reminder for us to focus our minds on what is good & pure.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

The following verse encourages us to practice these things, meaning they don't just happen & that you can improve! It is our responsibility to figure out what to practice; to go back through the scriptures to find what they learned, received, heard, & saw.

Philippians 4:9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Peace? Yes, please

There is so much great stuff in Philippians 4, but I think v6-7 stand out to me the most where it tells us how to get the peace of God.

In this crazy world we live in where everything moves so fast and everyone is so busy, the peace of God is definitely something I want to have. And as with many things in the Bible, the answer is quite simple (although not always easy to put into practice):

Don't worry, just pray.

If we give our concerns to God and trust that He will take care of them, His peace will guard our hearts and minds. That sounds good to me! But the difficult part is trusting God enough to let go of whatever you're anxious about.

Of course this doesn't mean everything will go your way, but if we trust that God's way is much better than our way (Is 55:8-9) we can have God's peace with whatever is happening around us.