One on One: Personal Reading and Study
Psalm 1
Unused Spiritual Resources
During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.
When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
Like the contents in this package, the resources for growth and strength are available for every Christian who will take advantage of them.
-A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase.
Today I’d like to talk to you about making use of the resource God has given you in His word by making it a part of your daily life. I believe the first step in that promise is to make a
1. Commitment
Joshua 24: 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
The context of that passage isn’t necessarily to choose to read your Bible, but it is about choosing to serve the Lord and I believe that a commitment to read the Bible is an essential part of the commitment to serve the Lord. And it is the “moment of decision” element of that verse I want to emphasize.
Nothing important gets done without the decision to do it—without the commitment to carry through. In order to make that commitment to God’s Word I believe you have to be convinced of its importance.
-It is said that when the famous missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, started his trek across Africa he had 73 books in 3 packs, weighing 180 pounds. After the party had gone 300 miles, Livingstone was obliged to throw away some of the books because of the fatigue of those carrying his baggage. As he continued on his journey his library grew less and less, until he had but one book left--his Bible.
We need to see our Bibles, and time in them as indispensable. If you do not have a commitment to spend time daily in God’s word, I’m going to ask you today to make that commitment. Then you need to live out your commitment with…
2. Consistency
Psalm 1:Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
It is important to make the Scripture a regular part of your life—a habit like brushing your teeth is for some of you. Something you don’t feel complete without. The promise of the Scripture is that you will be blessed if God’s Law—the Scripture is a part of your life day in and day out.
In Psalm 119 the writer makes this amazing statement:
164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous laws.
Now that passage is referring to the 7 daily times of prayer that Jews of that time kept, but it is an example of the kind of dedication and consistency that needs to be a part of our spiritual development. The Bible is compared to the bread of life—daily bread, something we need constantly to remain spiritually healthy.
-If all you get from the Bible each week is my preaching…you’ll starve! Some don’t know the virgin Mary from the New International Virgin…and if I asked who knocked down the walls of Jericho, you’d say “not me.”
If a bodybuilder doesn’t ever exercise you wouldn’t expect his body to get built. If a Christian doesn’t spend time at the gym of God’s word, I don’t expect them to get spiritually buff.
1 Timothy 4:8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Our time in the Word of God needs to be consistent if we hope to be spiritually healthy and growing.
Finally we need to be doing something with all that we read in God’s word, which brings us to…
3. Compliance
Joshua 1: 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
The purpose of our spending time in God’s word is to get His Word into us, By allowing God’s Word to truly get into us, we allow the Lord Himself to get into us and it should change the way we act. David wrote “Your Word I’ve hidden in my heart so that I will not sin against you.”
The way that works is that in reading God’s word, you hear God’s voice and give the Holy Spirit the chance to do His work in you—the work of convicting you of sin and exhorting you to do right. For that work to be complete though, we have to be cooperating partners:
James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
God’s blessing rests in our lives when we become disciples—students, followers of Jesus. We sit at his feet as students by spending time in his word. Then as his life grows in us and we become more and more like Him we live in his blessing
We’re blessed when we learn that It is more blessed to give than receive, when we learn that we need to forgive, when we learn that God wants us to be in unity. WE’re blessed when we put these things into practice.
