“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”  Colossians 1:11-12

When I played football for the Pacific University Boxers back in the old days there was a campus tradition called the Boxer Rebellion.  There was a small metal replica of a dog that would appear someplace on campus and everyone would fight to try and get it to their fraternity, dorm, club, or team.  It was like a giant melee and there was no telling when it would happen.  The group that had it would figure out some ingenious way of making it appear and a battle would immediately ensue.  Once, the boxer appeared while I was crossing campus, and I actually got to run a few steps with it before I was crushed under a host of other students. My football coach, who was watching the proceedings, started yelling and pulled everyone off.  (He had told the team that we could never be in a boxer rebellion). He took the dog from me andtossed it to someone else who was immediately chased down and disappeared in a pile of arms and legs.   This was the last time a boxer rebellion took place at Pacific University.  It was the volatile 60’s-70’s era and the boxer that was taken that day in 1969 was never seen again until two years ago when the culprits returned it to its home on campus.

Our boxer rebellion was an aggressive but fun event on a college campus. But there was an historic boxer rebellion in 1900 China that was very violent and very cruel.  In that year insurgents captured a mission station, blocked all the gates but one, and in front of that one gate placed a cross flat on the ground. Then the word was passed to those inside that any who trampled the cross underfoot would be permitted their freedom and life, but that any refusing would be shot. Terribly frightened, the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. But the eighth student, a young girl, refused to commit what she saw as an act of denying Christ.  Kneeling beside the cross in prayer for strength, she arose and moved carefully around the cross, and went out to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the remaining ninety-two students followed her to the firing squad.

We will probably never be asked to face a firing squad, but every day we must face series of decisions regarding our relationship with the Lord.  Everyday there seems to be a story in the news about how believers are expected to go against their convictions about homosexuality, abortion, prayer, even Christ Himself.  As we get closer to Christ’s return, our challenges will grow more and more difficult.  In our country we are almost isolated from the rest of the world in the area of persecution, but it could come some day.  Voices of Martyrs tracks the world-wide attack on Christianity and we are in a bubble here in the US compared to the rest of the world. It makes a person wonder how the softened Christians in America today would react in the face of true persecution.  In Romans Paul tells us to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)  The people in the countries around us are probably stronger than we are because tribulation strengthens us and prepares us for greater trials, and we don’t go to the spiritual gym as much as the rest of the world.

A while back I came across an poem by an unknown author.  I think it catches some of the truth about our tribulations.

“Lord, I’ve never moved a mountain and I guess I never will. All the faith that I can muster wouldn’t move the smallest hill.

Yet, I’ll tell you, Lord, I’m grateful for the joy of knowing Thee, and for all the mountain moving through the years You’ve done for me.

When I needed help you lifted me from the depths of great despair. And when burdens, pain and sorrow have been more than I can bear,

You have always been my courage to restore life’s troubled sea, and to move these little mountains that have looked so big to me.

“Many times when I’ve had problems and when bills I’ve had to pay, and the worries and the heartaches just kept mounting every day,

Lord, I don’t know how you did it. Can’t explain the wheres or whys, but I know I’ve seen these mountains turn to blessings in disguise.

“No, I’ve never moved a mountain, for my faith is far too small. Yet, I thank you, Lord of Heaven, you have always heard my call.

And as long as there are mountains in my life, I’ll have no fear, for the mountain-moving Jesus is my strength and always near.”

The Bible is full of mountain-moving promises from God.  We just need to rely on Him and realize that after every storm, the sun will return.  How we act during difficulties shows what is inside of us. If we fill a sponge with water and press down on it the water comes out.  If we are filled with Christ and are put under pressure, He should appear.

“We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” 2 Corinthians 6:3-10

As we face our daily difficulties, we need to lean upon Jesus.  Shortly after missionary Joe Scriven’s fiancé died in a terrible accident, he penned these words: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.”  Joe was on his way to healing.  We can be, as well.  We tend to be a stiff-necked people.  Just as the blacksmith heats the shoe to make it more malleable, sometimes we need to be heated so that God can shape us.  Let’s let Him do His work.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”  II Timothy 4:3

“Did not your hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures?”  Luke 24:32

These two verses stand juxtapose to each other in describing where we are today
compared to where we should be.   Many sit in pulpits wishing to be entertained by popular preachers whose sermons are a mile wide and an inch deep.  Many endure false doctrine because they do not know true doctrine.  Even the few that might recognize sound doctrine struggle with its application and flit from church to church, preacher to preacher, and denomination to denomination.  We substitute entertainment for edification and showmanship for sower-manship.  We accept anything and  ignore many things.  Rather than discerning evangelicals we have become undiscriminating evan-gullibles.  It is a day of itching ears.

When the two strangers are walking along the road to Emmaus and they are joined by the resurrected Jesus who they did not recognize, He spoke to their hearts.  Though their eyes were not opened until the end of their conversation, His words were strong and powerful and meaningful.  After they recognized Him and He took leave from their presence, they spoke of the way His words affected them.   They did not want Him to leave.  They ran to others to share the good news.  Their hearts burned within them.  They did not listen with itching ears to be told shallow truths, but desired to know the true depth of Christ.  Once we have concluded to hear the truths of God Word, we will not settle for fluff.  Our hearts will burn for more truth, for more scripture, for more knowledge.  We need an outbreak of holy heartburn, that moves us from hearers to doers.  We need hearts that wish to be touched rather than ears that wish to be scratched.  God needs to move us from itching-ear lemmings to burning-heart leaders!”

Over 1900 years ago Paul warned Timothy that, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3). We have things being preached in well-known churches, by well-known figures that skewer well-known verses.  They are able to lead us astray because we don’t question what they say.  In Israel the people cried out to the prophets, “See no more visions! Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” (Isa. 30:10-11)  The people did not want to know the truth.  As was said in a famous movie, they “could not handle the truth.”  So instead of hearing it, accepting it, and using it, they ask the prophets to quit saying it.  Tickle our ears they cried, just like many do today.

Today many who attend church say, “We’ve heard enough of this judgment message,” (but the judgment is now at the door). They cry out, “We’re tired of hearing so much preaching on repentance,” (but too many have not truly repented).  They shake their heads and say,  “We’ve had it with all this talk about holiness,” (but the holy God is the only one who can change an unholy world).  So pastors listen to their cries for pabulum.  Those in leadership soften their words to fill the seats.  They preach. a compromising gospel instead of the promising one.  They don’t talk about the “one way” to God, but the multitudinal pathways that all lead to the same place. They ignore truth because it is too narrow and spread lies because they are less offensive- and offensive doesn’t fill the pews.

We might think that this cannot happen.  People are too wizened to these things.  They cannot be fooled by pulpit puppeteers.  But remember, it was the people of Israel — not Babylon, not Assyria, not Canaan, not Egypt — but God’s own chosen nation that “made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy” (Amos 2:12). They told those who were set apart as holy to the Lord to lower their standards, to quit being extremists, and to to soften their tone.  We don’t want to take all of this too far.  We don’t want to be seen as extremists accepting the Bible for what is says about sin and repentance and salvation.

There is a great little illustration of today’s church in 1 Kings 22. King  Ahab of Israel was trying to convince King Jehoshaphat of Judah to join him in battle against  Ramoth  Gilead in Syria. All of   Ahab’s “prophets” were yes-men who said what he wanted to hear rather than tell the truth. They told him to go and make war against Ramoth Gilead, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand” (1 Kings 22:6).  King Jehoshaphat was cautious, however, and asked if all the prophets had been consulted.  Ahab said,  “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah’” (1 Kin. 22:6-7).  The king’s messenger went to Micaiah and told him to agree with the other prophets because the king would like it.  Instead, Micaiah told the truth and was thrown into prison.   Ahab went into battle (the battle he was not supposed to enter) and his army was routed and he was killed.  We can tell preachers to say what we want them to say, but changing God’s Word does not change the consequences of disobeying it.

A newsboy was standing on the corner with a stack of papers, yelling: “See it here first. Fifty people swindled! Fifty people swindled!” Curious, a man walked over, bought a paper, and checked the front page. Finding nothing, the man said: “There’s nothing in here about 50 people being swindled.”  The newsboy ignored him and went on, calling out: “See it here first. Fifty-one people swindled!”  A funny story, but unfortunately we can be fooled, as well.  We need to be cautious or we will easily become swindled by fake messages from false churches.

How do we keep from being deceived?  By knowing God’s word and not being fooled by charlatans in the churches.  Right now, if someone slips heaven in to the title of a book or makes a movie that talks about God in it, we flock to the bookstores or movie theaters and accept things that are theological train wrecks. We must not be deceived about that which we have received.  Pastors should  not be cooks trying to cook food that just tastes good, but food that really is good.  The Word needs to be nourishing.  Man does not live by chocolate alone (see, a twisting of scripture to fit my point!)

If we are man-pleasers we will surely be God-insulters.  We need to listen to those who bring challenging, convicting, life-changing messages on the word of God rather than wimpy mouthpieces for the devils deceptions.  Check out what is said in the pulpit with what is said in the Word.   Joel Osteen, a popular “preacher,” has a big grin that hides a deceptive message.  Just because someone is popular does not make him right.  Be aware.  Be careful.  The way to heaven is narrow.  If the way that is painted is too broad, it is probably not headed for heaven.

“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.” Psalm 32:2

A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?” There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up. “Sin,” he said.  That is certainly true, but it is not something we must try to do.  It is something we naturally do.  As Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Sin is a burden. Whether it is sin from the past or sin of the present, it loads us up and takes away the joy that we can have in Christ. Some of us spend years dwelling on our past sins, living in regret of those things that cannot be changed. Many of us have hurt others and even ourselves and replay our mistakes over and over and allow them to keep us from accepting the healing that Christ can give us. There is something inside of us that keeps telling us that we do not deserve God’s forgiveness, and we must hang on to our past mistakes to fully pay for them. That, however, is not the way God sees it.

Clara Barton, the wonderful founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” came Barton’s reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.” Many of us can forgive others in that way. We put their offense behind us. We truly do forgive and forget. But then we use a different standard of forgiveness for ourselves. The trifecta enemy, consisting of the world, our flesh, and satan’s minions, happily remind us of our past sins. The remembrance of those sins clings to us like barnacles on a ship, slowing our progress and finally growing to unmanageable proportions.

When we accept Christ He forgives us. We have told Him about our sin and asked Him to pardon us. He did, so why can’t we accept the freedom of His forgiveness? Today’s verse reminds us that it is possible to put our sins behind us. This can be a hard thing to accept for many of us. It sounds all well and good, but in reality, the weight of our sin makes it difficult to believe a perfect God can forgive.  

There are two reasons why it is so hard for us. First of all, we may have accepted Christ without truly understanding the need for Him. The weight of our sin might remain because we don’t recognize that it is our sin that is weighing us down. We don’t realize how our past is affecting our present because we have never truly dealt with our past. We accepted Christ and understood the depth of His forgiveness, but not the depth of our sin. Second of all, we might realize the depth of our sin, but see it as so deep, so dark, that we feel it can never (nor should be) forgiven, thus cannot accept the depth of Christ’s forgiveness. Only when we realize the depth of our sin and the depth of God’s forgiveness can we let go of our pasts and live in the freedom of God’s mercy.

God assures us that He does not count our sin against us, so we must take some intentional steps to make this truth a reality in our lives. So, the first step is to acknowledge our sin: to ourselves and to God. After we have done that, it is time to fill our hearts and minds with truth. Only in the Bible is it revealed how God can soften a hard heart to accept His forgiveness. In the Word, we learn about the freedom from condemnation: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 We learn about the freedom from sin: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14 We learn about freedom in newness: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 As we look at verses like these, we see our sin, but we also see God’s plan to put that sin behind us.

How can God do this wonderful, miraculous thing of complete restoration? In the book of Isaiah, he makes some very specific promises to us. “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” Isaiah 1:18 and “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25 Okay, but how does He do this? Surely, like a large renovated building, there will still be signs of the old building there. Surely the configuration will be similar, or maybe the number of floors or maybe the outside is changed, but the inside will be the same. But God does not want to renovate us.  He wants to tear down the old and rebuild an entirely new person. He just wants the site.

There is no resemblance to the old. All the flaws have been erased in His eyes. We are finally brand new.  We are finally free.  “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36  God says that if we let Him have us, we will not just be refurbished, we will be totally rebuilt. All those sins of the past are torn down and hauled away out of our sight and the sight of God. If we continue to search for them, we will not be able to enjoy the trueness of our newness. We need to put our sins where God has put them- as far as the east is from the west. We are forgiven! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

“My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.In return for my friendship they accuse me,but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.” Psalm 109:1-5

“But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” Psalm 109:21,22

“With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.” Psalm 109:30,31

Psalm 109 is about a man who is under attack from rather unscrupulous persons. They care little for the truth, but care greatly about hurting others. They are untrustworthy and deceitful. They do not care about the hurt they are inflicting or about the consequences of their actions. Throughout this Psalm the writer David calls for God to bring the hammer down on his enemies. Whereas some psalms are soothing, such as Psalm 23 and others are comforting like Psalm 91, Psalm 109 is very troubling to most because it is perhaps the strongest imprecatory Psalm that David wrote. The word imprecatory means to call down destruction on someone and much of Psalm 109 does exactly that.

Most of us have had the experience of being the recipient of terrible treatment from someone.  We have been slandered, had our character besmirched, and even had those who have tried to ruin our reputation.  If that has not happened to you that is great, but unfortunately it is not unreasonable to think it could happen.  There are some pretty unjust people populating this world.  Well, if we have even had some of these unjust things happen to us, we can identify with David.

Notice that these people are wholly unjustified in these attacks. David says they do this without a cause and we take him to be an honest man. He sees absolutely no reason for their accusations. They are afflicting him, upsetting him, and attacking him without cause. That very well may have been the case, but what should he do in response?  The writers in the Old Testament and even a few times in the New,   vent their anger to God about their enemies and call for some pretty awful punishment for them. Should we call down curses on our enemies like that (as though we haven’t once in a while already) or are there alternatives?

I think David gives us a pretty good formula for dealing with these kinds of problems. First of all,  David commits the whole matter to the Lord in prayer.  In the first five verses,  he outlines his problems.  It is not as though God does not know them already, but by verbalizing them, David can do a truth check on his own feelings.  Is this really what is going on?  Are these things really unjust?  Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? This is really important to do.  Why?  Because in verbalizing our woes, we may realize that our emotion is unfounded, or maybe we are in the wrong, or that our accusers need mercy.
By talking to God about it, we can decide on step two in the process.

If we decide that we should handle things differently, then we do.  Maybe instead of bringing wrath down upon our accusers, we should pray mercy for them.  Maybe we should confront them.  Maybe we should forgive them.  Whatever it is that we should do, we should do.  In the verses above, David has decided that he wants the hammer dropped down on his enemies.  By the way, with all his flaws, David was a man after God’s own heart.  If we call for God to deal out appropriate discipline to others, we had better be disciplined in our own walk first.  Remember, we are all beggars just pointing other beggars to food. We’d better not be a kettle calling the pot black (old saying, but a goody).  If we are going to wish punishment on others, we’d better be sure we don’t deserve it ourselves.  Someone once said that if we point our finger at someone else, three of our fingers are pointing back at us.

In verses 1-5 David commits the cause to God.  “But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake.”  He understands that the lord has said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” in both the Old and New Testaments.  (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19).  He says that vengeance is His! We shouldn’t try it; leave it up to God and don’t try to ‘get even,’ because if we do, we will only make matters worse. We will end up damaging others and creating all kinds of difficulties both for them and for us. The Lord is the only one who has the wisdom to adequately  handle these kinds of a problems.  David recognizes that and commits the cause to God.

But David also understands that God’s name is involved in all this. When God’s people are being persecuted, then God is also being persecuted. After David thoroughly checks the situation and decides he is not being petty and checks his own heart to make sure he is not outside God’s will, he then calls on God to defend God’s name. When Paul was Saul and was converted on the road to Damascus, Jesus identified Himself by saying “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  Saul was persecuting the Christians, but when he was persecuting them, he was also persecuting the Lord. God is involved in His people’s tribulations. David understands this, commits the whole cause to God and says, “God, you deal with it. It is Your problem. Your name is involved; you handle it on my behalf for Your name’s sake.”  That is also what we should do.

We should ask God to keep us from striking back when we have been falsely accused.  If we ride into town, guns blazing, there will probably be a lot collateral damage. If God rides into town guns blazing, He will only hit what should be hit.  We must ask Him to help us commit the cause to Him, trusting that He knows how to work these things out.  We might tell God what we think should be done, but in the end, we need to turn the whole thing over to Him.  He will do what He will do, in His own time and in His own way.  And it will be right and good in such a way that our feeble minds could have never done it as well.

While the prayers of David were severe, his personal actions toward his enemies were often gracious and kind.  David talked about Saul a lot in his prayers (Saul was out to get David).  Even though David cried out for God’s justice, David still extended mercy to Saul.  David refused to take personal revenge, even when he had the opportunity to kill Saul, he cut off a piece of his robe instead (1 Sam. 24:1-8) and later he was conscience-stricken for the spirit that had prompted even this small act (v. 5). David may have prayed fiercely, but his actions were absolutely gracious and kind.

We need to do the same as David. At the end of his prayer, he shows the right attitude, the right reaction, and the right way to handle this kind of situation.  Tell God what we think and step away. If God decides correction is necessary, let Him handle it.  If He thinks mercy is necessary, let Him show it.  If He thinks we should be part of it, let Him reveal it.  This kind of thing is way above our pay grade.  Let God take care of it.  There used to be a very popular TV show in the very old days.  It was called “Father Knows Best.”  I have to believe when it comes to the handling of our accusers, our “Father knows best.”  If He knows best, let Him do best!

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”   Joshua 1:8

I read a Christian fiction book a couple years ago that was very good.  It is one by a less-than-well-known author and it was on sale for free, a price I sometimes have a hard time passing up.  The book was intriguing and revolved around about twelve people, all of whom had incredible conflicts going on in their lives.  The way their lives intertwine is fascinating, but what I really like about the book is the writing style.  Some of the characters give wonderful insights and I remember reading a gem that I thought I would share.  One of the characters talked about his grandfather who was a godly man and explained the grandfather’s philosophy of life.  He had what he called a “top-button” view of life.  When someone buttons up his shirt, if the top button’s right, all the other buttons fall right into place.  If the top button is off, no matter how a person tries to get things lined up, it can’t be done.  Our relationship with God is our top button.  If it is right the rest of our life will align.  If it is not, the effort to try to get things right in the rest of our life will be a constant battle.

I think one of the the things that can “get our top button right” is cherishing God’s word.  As we get older, we often see less  need to read the Word because we know so much of what it says. But if we don’t stay in the Word, we will actually lose those memories of what it says and how it can help us.  We can start taking what it says for granted and don’t really feel the need to consult it any longer.  Although the Word never changes, our lives do and we need to stay up with how the Word functions differently for us in different times in our lives.  

As you know, I am not much of fashion aficionado.  I am always about three years behind the latest trends.  My ties are fat when they should be skinny and skinny when everyone else is wearing fat.  Unfortunately, when we stop reading the Bible, we are often pulling out fat ties during a skinny-tie time in our life. In other words, a verse we read in 2005 probably has a different meaning in 2020 not because it has changed, but because the times have changed and because we have changed.  In Joshua 1:8 it says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  The words “for then” presuppose that we are doing the first part of the verse which is reading the word daily.

If we do not stay “current” in the Bible by reading it often, we will not really know how it can serve us and how we can serve God.  The great preacher Alexander White, when he was too old to mount the pulpit, would rise every morning to prepare a sermon, even though he never preached them. He did so until the day he died. He was convinced that study of the Word was essential to living life completely.  We often say that we can’t read because we don’t have enough time to read.  Martin Luther used to say that he was so busy and his upcoming day was so full, that he could not afford not to read the Bible.   We seem to find the time to do less meaningful things, so it makes sense that if we truly believe the Bible is the most precious book in the world and contains value for us every day, we would find time to read it. We all prioritize our daily lives.  Although part of our day is structured, there is much of the time that is left up to us, to use as we please. We decide when we will get up and what we will do with that time; we decide how we will use our empty moments; we decide how we use our breaks, and we decide how late to stay up and what our late night activities are.

George Mueller, after having read the Bible through one hundred times with increasing delight, made this statement: “I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God.  Friends often say, ‘I have so much to do, so many people to see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.’  Perhaps there are not many who have more to do than I. For more than half a century I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 4 years I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. Then, as pastor of a church with 1,200 believers, great has been my care. Besides, I have had charge of five immense orphanages; also, at my publishing depot, the printing and circulating of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles; but I have always made it a rule never to begin work until I have had a good season with God and His Word. The blessing I have received has been wonderful.”  

I don’t think any of us can describe our days as full as George Mueller’s, but yet he prioritized his day to include the Bible. When Dr. David Livingstone started his famous trek across Africa, he had three packs of 180 pounds of books. Those carrying the baggage were so fatigued that he was obligated to jettison some of his books.  By the time he finished the journey, he had one left, his Bible.  He had prioritized his bible over all the scientific, medical, and scholarly books he had taken.

If we think we can grow in the Lord just on our past knowledge of the Bible, we are sorely mistaken.  We forget, things change, we age, but if we stay in the Word we will be amazed at how it can stay new.  It doesn’t matter how much we ate this morning, we will eventually have to eat again.  A meal last week does not fill us up today.  Good News Club is not meant to be enough Bible for us for the rest of our lives. There is no better way to “get our top button straight” than to remain in the Word.  If we don’t , we will spend a lot of time trying to get everything else squared away and no matter how much we try, we will still be a mess.