Tag: every false way

52.l. Wilderness – 16.r. ” If you are willing and obedient”

 

 

Deu 28:1  “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

 Psalms 106:3   Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!

 Isaiah 1:19     If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

 Isaiah 3:10    Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

 Isaiah 55:2-3   Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

 Luke 11:28    But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

 Exodus 15:26     saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

 Psalms 119:6    Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

 Psalms 119:128    Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.

“If you faithfully obey the voice of God and being careful to do”. To faithfully obey and being careful to do one must know what to obey, in part and in detail, so that they can be careful and attentive to do it. Knowing and wanting to know what God expects and is honored and glorified in and by us requires us to seek it out with a heart that desires it. This desire comes out of the heart and mind. If there is no desire or weak desire there will be no need to be careful. How many people want just enough of the Gospel to convince them of salvation but have no desire to know and grow deeper in understanding the knowledge of God’s grace, mercy, and love? 

God’s Word says of these people “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.”

Desiring to honor and glorify God stems from the heart of man seeking to know and understand the Word of God and things of God. Being ignorant due to neglect is clearly a witness to the desire of the heart. We can come up with all kinds of excuses and reasons for the neglect. “I just don’t have time”, “I’m so busy”, “I just don’t understand when I read it”, “I don’t have time so I listen to Christian music all day”, “I go to church on Sunday”, “I’m to slow to understand”, “I’m so tired I just can’t find the time either in the morning or evening”, “I listen to my conscious and trust the Holy Spirit will lead me”, etc…..

When have you ever made the excuse to not do something so that you could spend time in God’s Word?

When has the desire in your heart to honor and glorify God been so overwhelming that you hungered and thirsted for the Word of God?

The promises of God contain both blessings and curses, mercy and wrath, and love and anger. They are in relationship to the person’s heart, mind, and soul desiring Him or not.  

There is no excuse for ignorance due to neglect and allowing the busyness of life to rule over you. 

Determine to set your heart and mind to know God through His Word.

Still not ready

Psalms 119:97   Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.  Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.  I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.  I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

“This is a pure song of praise. It contains no single petition, but is just one glad outpouring of the heart.” (Morgan)

The superficial Christian may read and understand and even, in an outward sense, obey the word of God. But only the spiritual man loves it; they live as if they could not live without it. To the superficial Christian it is a duty to satisfy the conscience; to the believer it is food and medicine, light and comfort – the word of God is life.

If one wants to, they can increase their love for God’s word. You can’t make yourself love something or someone; but you can cultivate love towards someone or something.

· Give it your time; set it before you constantly.

· Give it your attention and care; look after the word of God (it is my meditation all the day).

· Give it a truly listening ear.

· Give it your honor and your obedience.

· Give it your appreciation; value it for all the good it has done for you and be thankful for all that good.

· Give it your dependence and trust; let it care for you.

· Give it your praise; speak highly of it before others.

When we truly love someone, we don’t wish to change them. “You cannot bend the Bible to your mind; how much better it would be for you to bend your mind to the Bible, and to say, ‘O how I love thy law, – the doctrines of it, the precepts of it, the promise of it, the ordinances it enjoins upon me, the warnings it sets before me, the exhortations it gives me!’ Love the whole Bible from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, and be prepared even to die rather than to give up half a verse of it.” (Spurgeon)

“I beseech you to let your Bibles be everything to you. Carry this matchless treasure with you continually, and read it, and read it, and read it again and again. Turn to its pages by day and by night. Let its narratives mingle with your dreams; let its precepts color your lives; let its promises cheer your darkness, let its divine illumination make glad your life. As you love God, love this Book which is the Book of God, and the God of books, as it has rightly been called.” (Spurgeon)

“We may hear the wisest teachers and remain fools, but if we meditate upon the sacred word we must become wise. There is more wisdom in the testimonies of the Lord than in all the teachings of men if they were all gathered into one vast library. The one book outweighs all the rest.” (Spurgeon)

Boice tells a story about the life of Harry Ironisde, the pastor and author and Bible commentator. Ironside went to visit a man near death, suffering from tuberculosis. The man was almost dead and could barely speak. As Ironside spoke to him he asked, “Young man, are you trying to preach Christ, are you not?” Ironside said that he was, and the man replied: “Well, sit down a little, and let us talk together about the Word of God.” Then the man opened his Bible and spoke with Ironside until his strength was gone; he shared insights from the Bible that Ironside had not appreciated or even seen before. Ironside was stunned, and he asked the man: “Where did you get these things? Can you tell me where I can find a book that will open them up to me? Did you get them in seminary or college?” The old man replied: “My dear young man, I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There with my open Bible before me, I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul and to open the Word to my heart. He taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I ever could have learned in all the seminaries or colleges in the world.”

The Bible is the description of our heavenly inheritance.

The Bible is the instruction manual for wise and blessed living.

The Bible is a telescope where we see the heavenly city that is our destination.

1 Corinthians 3:2  Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk,not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly.