Good morning son,
Proverbs 1 and Psalm 32
Now if you are like me, memorization is
not that strong a thing. I sometimes have a hard time remembering
what I went in a room to get, much less a passage of scripture. But
I would encourage you to start memorizing the word. So this will be
about as difficult for me as it is for you. But hang in there, we
can do this.
And why?
When I was in the Army I had to
memorize the Code of Conduct. Why? Because by doing so it kept us
ever mindful of how we were to serve in the Army, how we were to
function as a lean, mean cohesive fighting machine. And here . . .
why would we memorize God's word? Well there is a verse that says,
“Thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you.”
Forgive me for the Olde English, but that is how I memorized it when
I was a young'um. Basically it means I have taken hold of God's word
deep inside of me and it, His word does the work of keeping me on the
right path; i.e. the work of obeying God. See the more of His word I
put in me the more straight my path will be. Okay, I am using a
little “churchy talk” – “straight path” – basically by
“straight path” I mean the more I will be living in the way God
intended me to live, fulfilling my purpose here in life and staying
on the course or way that he has for me – being obedient. Charles
Stanley, the great preacher, says that our responsibility is to obey
God and leave the consequences up to him. I agree. And the best way
to help us obey Him is to put more of Him inside of us. By
memorizing scripture we are doing just that. Got it? Well you will.
It works. If you hang in there with me, you and I both will be
amazed at what He does.
Oh, and don't beat yourself up if you
feel that you are not getting this memorization thing down. It will
come with time and effort. I may will put up verses you might want
to memorize and if in your readings you come across something else
you would like to memorize well go right ahead, don't let me stop
you. What is most touching you in God's word will always be what is
easiest to remember. It is real to you. Let Him speak. Listen and
write it down.
Here is a verse to memorize.
“Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.”
– Psalm 32: 10
There are many ways you can go about
memorization of the passage. Write it out a large number of times on
a piece of paper. Get an index car and write on one side the
location of the verse and pieces of it like “Many are ___ ____ of
the _______, but the Lord's __________ _____ surrounds ____ ____ who
_______ in _______.” Or simply put the place where the passage is
on one side and the verse written out three times on the back. At
least three times a day look at the card and try to say the verse by
memory. Check your progress on the back. These are just my ideas.
But again I am not very good at this. So perhaps you may have a
better way of doing this. If you do, just let me know. In any case,
we will get going to getting that word inside of us. Got it?
As always, what I am writing is not the
total of what you should be doing. It is only the verses that leaped
off the pages to me and my study of them, and application. You
should be writing down what leaped off the pages to you when you read
both Proverbs and Psalms. This is God speaking to you. It may be
different than what leaped off the pages to me. And that is more
than okay. These “Got Word?”'s are not to take the place of your
own asking God. They are only to help you, maybe see something else
in the passages that you are reading.
Don't worry if you can't write out a
whole lot on the interpretation, what you are hearing from him. I
keep a separate notebook myself with a whole lot less writing than
what you read here. It consists mainly of the verses that leaped off
the pages and what I think he is saying to me about them. Rarely do
I go into the detail you see here in writing. What I do do is write
out the whole verse that leaped off the page and what I think I am to
get from it for my life today. This becomes an amazing encouragement
and a record of what I am hearing from God. It is kinda like a
training journal of exercise. Okay, I know you already got it. So
let me hit today's GW?, which because I took so much time writing
this other stuff will be abbreviated (short).
So here is what leaped off the pages to
me:
Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and discipline.”
If you take a look at this verse it
follows a breakdown of what all of these proverbs are from starting
out with Proverbs 1:1-2 “. . . .for attaining wisdom and
discipline; for understanding words of insight; for
acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is
right and just and fair;. . .” Right
from the beginning the author lets you know where he is going and
why, i.e. what is the reason that we are reading and studying these.
He makes it plain. What are we trying to gain – wisdom,
discipline, understanding, a prudent life – doing what is right,
just and fair. In verse seven he gives us the main point – fear
God.
“Fear God”
What exactly does that look like. We know from the writing that it
will be the gateway to knowledge and wisdom, but what exactly does it
look like?
Do you remember
the quote from Dr. Charles Stanley above - “obey God and leave the
consequences up to Him.” Well that is what fearing God is. It is
simply obeying Him. It is simply doing what He says, trusting in
Him, trusting that His word is true when others would mock it and
call it foolish. It is simply fearing no one, or no thing more than
Him.
Oh, but I don't
fear anything. I am my own person. No one dictates to me what I
will do, where I will go, who I will be with, what I will wear.
Really? REALLY?
Take
a look in the mirror. Would you say that the clothes your are
wearing are all that unique from those in the crowd at a bus stop?
Would you say that your speech is all that different from the people
you hang around with? Would you say that your lifestyle choices are
all that different from those around you? Now, if you are like me,
you recognize that they are not all that different. But the question
really isn't whether they are or they are not, it is WHY are they
what they are. If they are anything but what they are supposed to be
by God then it is an example of your fearing “whatever” more
than you fear Him. Let me give you an example.
I went to bed this
morning at 1:30AM. God awoke me at 4:30AM. I could not sleep. I
kept lying there and tossing. I knew He wanted to speak to me, but
was concerned that I would not get the rest I thought that I needed.
Indeed, I kinda wanted to say to Him – PLEASE don't you understand
that I need my sleep! Why do we have to talk right now? After
tossing around for a little I got up and came downstairs here to seek
the Lord.
When I went to bed
last night I had a number of heartaches on my mind. Questions that I
wanted to have answers to. When I came downstairs I did as I tell
you to do. I asked the Lord to speak to me, opened the word (the
bible) and read. The verses which leaped off the pages was what I
wrote down in my notebook. I not only got answers to the questions
in my heart, but direction and confirmation of what I was believing
already that I was to do, but was afraid of doing. But that was not
enough. I felt the need to continue and do today's GW? So this is
why I am still up right now writing. But don't you worry, sleep is
returning to my eyes as I come to the end here.
Now am I afraid
that I may not get enough rest? Yes, I was. But I am charged to
fear God more than I fear even my own concerns for myself. I am
charged to trust Him in the provision of what I need. And that
includes sleep. It also includes confirmation and direction from
Him. He knows that without such a word from His word, my sleep will
be restless and not peaceful and my day will be full of frustration
and lack direction. I gained wisdom and understanding this morning.
Fear the Lord and
begin to gain wisdom and understanding.
The last month
following these GW?'s may have been a little difficult. Some of them
were a little hard to read, I know they were not easy to write. And
this month will be no less difficult and challenging. The only way
that each of us can stay on this path; that each of us can continue
to read and apply the word that we see before us; that we can
memorize scripture, etc. is if we fear the Lord more than anything
else and are willing to do the work.
Are you? I am.
And He is willing to work with me and you to make us all that He
designed us to be IF we but first fear Him above all else.
So get to work His
child. Read and write in your notebook for today. Start to
memorizing. Let's see where God will take us going forward!
Got Word?
I did.
Love yah,
dad
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