Discipline One – The Scriptures – God’s Perfect Path For Us

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Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Timothy 4.

1 Timothy 4 is the marching orders, as it were for us as believers. What we should make sure is in the mix. It is good to have family plans and financial plans and physical health and fitness and your diet plans but listen to what Paul says.

It’s the second half of verse seven of 1 Timothy 4. He said this, after we reject the profane and old wise fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness or discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. We are called of God to intentionally volitionally, willfully choose to do things that will exercise and discipline and direct our lives toward godliness.

As you make your plans to focus on that, God has told us that we should discipline our lives and take up into our lives choices that lead to godliness. Now you say, which disciplines are you talking about? Should we discipline our money? We’ll talk about this and there should we discipline our body? We’ll talk about that.

But the primary avenue of our discipline toward godliness, we find to be. Getting time listening to God speak to us. And I call that the discipline of scripture. Now, I’m going to go through a whole bunch of disciplines in the days ahead, Lord willing, but I believe all of them are built on whether or not you and I are listening to God.

Now I’ll start with my conclusion. So, you turn right to the middle of your Bible and look at Psalm 16 with me for just a minute. Please, if you’re new with us, you just open your Bible in the middle, you’ll probably hit something called Psalms and keep flipping in your Bible till you get to the 16th one because all of the disciplines of the spiritual life begin with listening to God. When I read the Bible, God is speaking to me. When I pray, I am responding back and speaking to God. So, the primary emphasis of our godly life is I need to get God’s input into my life. I need to get God directing and arranging and showing me what should go on in my life.

And that’s what the Scriptures are all about. It’s the mind of God. It’s the will of God. It’s the plan of God. It’s the revelation of God. It’s the voice of God. It is God speaking to me, feeding me, and directing my life.

Now let me share just one person’s testimony. King David, the last verse of chapter 16. Now, we’re going to read this through three times. I’m going to point out to it, I’m going to explain it, and then we’re all going to read it together and pray that we’ll live it. But look at Psalm 16 of verse 11, You, oh Lord God Almighty, King of the universe, you might add in there, will show me the path of life. Do you know what the offer is that God says?

If you’ll get into this book, do you know what God’s offering you this morning? God says, if you’ll let Me, I’m going to make all the arrangements for you in your life. I am going to arrange your life for you. I’m going to arrange it for you that the pathway of life, that will be the most wonderful, the most fruitful, the most glorifying to me life you could ever have. I want to show that to you. You know what God said? He said, I want to make the arrangements for you and your life.

I’ll go through the rest of this. But I first discovered the meaning of that about 25 years ago on Thanksgiving. I was a ministerial student. I was in, in college and training in Greenville, South Carolina.

And I was being actually in the module where they were teaching us about hospital visits. And so, I was out practicing on Thanksgiving as a student down in Greenville, South Carolina hospital visits. And I remember getting assigned a person and I went to the hospital to visit them, and I was walking down the hall.

I had my Bible all marked. I knew the verse; I knew I was going to pray about. I knew how I was going to try and encourage the person. And I was steaming down the hall like you do in the hospital, healthy as you can be. And I was glancing in the rooms just enjoying it, everything. I wasn’t planning to be in the hospital anytime soon.

I was just going to minister, and I glanced in one of the rooms. You know how, you’re just curious. And it was just for an instant. I looked in that room and I saw sitting up in the bed the most forlorn face I’d ever seen in my life. If he wasn’t dead, he was near it. He was just like that, sitting in that bed and I didn’t think anything of it, and I just kept going to my call and I went right there, and I read the Bible to the person, and I prayed with them, and they thanked me, and I started back.

But on my heart, I had such a burden about that forlorn, destitute looking person all alone in that room. So, I retrace my steps back down the hall and lightly knocked and walked in and I said, I don’t even know who you are, but I saw you look so sad. Could I share some Scripture? And they said, oh, sure.

It was a man in there. And so, I actually shared the same Scripture, and I prayed with him, learned his testimony, found out he was a believer, and he wasn’t dying, he was just sick. And my heart went out to him. He looked so sad, and I said, it’s Thanksgiving and you’re all alone. Is there anything I could do for you?

Now remember I was a poor seminary student. I shouldn’t have asked that. And this guy looked at me and he said, yes. He said, they’re starving me to death in this hospital. He said, would you get me one of those Wendy’s triples? Do you know those cost a $1.79? I only had $2, and I spent both of my dollars, and it took me a whole hour.

I went down to Wendy’s and got one of those triples, and then I felt so bad. I thought, what if the guy’s diabetic or dying of something, ’cause I was sneaking in the hospital under my coat, this bag with this triple decker Wendy thing. And I walked in, and I gave it to him, and he looked at me and he said, thank you.

He said, you’ll never know what that means to me. He said that you just helped me. He said, you’ve never seen me before. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me. You just help me. He said, thank you. He said, could I just have your name and address? He said, I’d like to send you a little thank you. I thought, sure, this is kind of fun hospital visitation. So, I gave him my address and phone number and everything, and I went home.

Two weeks later, I got a call from this man. He was out of the hospital. He said, would you mind if I stopped by and took you out to dinner tonight? Again, I was going to have post toasts and I thought anything is better than that. And so, I said, yes.

And at six something that night, a great big, long limousine pulled up in front of my little, tiny one room place where I was staying as a seminary student. And the driver got out and I was escorted to a restaurant in that town and there sat my friend all well and quite dressed up and we had a private cook at our table, and we had the most, there were no prices on the menu I noted. It’s one of the fanciest places I’ve ever been. And at the table, this Christian man shared with me that he was an orphan adopted by a Texas oil family and the sole heir of their empire. And he says, only people ever cared about me were the ones that wanted my money. And he said, you stopped, and I was in this town, and I was in that hospital, and you stopped to visit me for no reason except the love of Christ.

He said, so I wanted to honor you with this meal. So, we, I thought it was great. I hadn’t seen a steak that thick in my life and I just ate and enjoyed and everything. And he said, I just have a question. He said, would you ever want to go with some of my friends on a little trip. I said, what do you mean?

He says, I’ll make all the arrangements. Do you just want to come? I said, I’m in school. He said, I know you’re in school. He said, after school, do you want to go with me? I said I can’t aff-, and he said. Afford? He said, I’ll make all the arrangements. Let me do it. He said, do you want to come? I said, yeah, I do. I’ll go.

Seven months later in May. When school got out, I got my packet. I. Now some of you wonder how someone said, how could you have been to all those places? Now you’re learning one of my secrets. Go on hospital visitation. You’ll find out I got a packet, I had tickets, I had everything. I met him in London.

We were chauffeured. We went to restaurants. Have you ever been to a restaurant where the fish are in a tank next to you? These are saltwater tanks, and you point at the fish you want. They spear it, cook it, boy, you talk about fresh. It was brought to us and then we would go from there to the plays and the theater.

So, when we got down with London. And all the stuff in the British Isles. We went to Holland and did the same thing. Then we went to France. We went to every, everything. I’d never, we ate in one restaurant we had, it was a 20-course meal and there were, they brought little French things to cook all the way around the table, and we had waiters, and they were bringing, and they never stopped.

And that was just, then we went to Switzerland, that same thing. Then we went to all the art galleries in Germany. Then we ended in Italy. Wow. I always remember what he said. I’ll make all the arrangements.

Look back at Psalm 16 with me because I want to read it with you because I’m not talking about my friend Carl. The point of the story I just shared with you is that Carl made all the arrangements, but I’d never been to the places he took me. He arranged everything. We were picked up, we were chauffeur to sites, we went to museums and restaurants and plays. It was an unbelievable experience of the world, the way the rich and famous travel.

But more than that, it was a lesson for me that someone with greater resources and experience and knowledge can do a better job at arranging events than I ever could.

Now, the Lord says, if you’ll discipline yourself for the discipline of Scripture, which is God’s speaking to you, and you’ll respond in prayer back and say, speak Lord, Your servant wants to obey You.

This is the life that He offers us in Psalm 16 in verse 11, He said, if you’ll listen to Me speak to you through My Word then you can rest in My arrangements for your life. That’s what He says. You will show me the path of life. If you think it would be neat to go for two weeks to seven countries with some mega millionaire and have him pay everything and show you the world you’ve never seen before. Can you imagine what every day of life is like with the King of the universe and your Creator who knows you, who designed you, who built you for a purpose if He gets to arrange your life? It’s a whole different way of looking at life, isn’t it?

I am not saying that you’ll eat in exotic restaurants all the time. That was interesting, but it’s kind of boring after a while. The rich people eat strange stuff because they’re so bored with normal stuff and who wants to eat monkey’s ears, and stuff like that all the time. But you know what? What I’m saying is God says, I will make the arrangements for your life. I will show you the path of life.

Keep looking at the 11th verse. He said, if you’ll listen to Me speaking to you through the Scriptures, you can enjoy My companionship through life. I learned something. That guy had all the money. He told me story after story. He inherited a 10,000-acre ranch. They discovered oil. He said they’re putting those things down as fast as they can. And he said, it’s just money. But you know what, how did I meet him? He was sitting alone in a hospital forlorn. Money can’t buy you happiness, just places to look for it.

You know what Jesus offers you? He says, you can enjoy My companionship through life. He says, in Your presence is fullness, Psalm 16:11, of joy. That’s what God offers.

Finally, at the end of the 11th verse, He said, if you’ll listen, if you’ll discipline yourself in the Scriptures and listen to Me and let Me speak to you through My Word, you can rest in My, look what it says at the end, at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You know what right hand means? Right hand spoke of the power and the authority, and so at the right hand of the Father means that Jesus is with the power and the authority of the Father and always the Son of my right hand is the Son that has My empowerment and My authority.

You know what God says in the 11th verse here? He says, I want you to, if you will listen to Me and let me arrange your life for you and accompany you through life, I want you to live in my power, and I want you to have the boldness that comes of knowing that your life has been authorized by Me. I’ve designed it. I am leading it. I am guiding it. I am paying and empowering for you to live my life here on Earth. It’s a whole different way to look at life, and it’s such a powerful lesson.

I’m going to read Psalm 16:11. I’m going to pray that God will help us decide to have the discipline of scripture so he can do Psalm 1611 in our life. Here it is. You will show me the path of life in Your presence is fullness of joy. And at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Let’s bow together. Father, help us to understand the discipline of Scripture and may we discipline and exercise our ourself for the purpose of godliness and help us remember that You said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.

And we are to pray that you give us our daily bread. And that’s an also a prayer to say, Lord, I want to feed on Your Scripture on every Word of God, every day of my life. Lord, You want to make the arrangements for our life? I learned a lesson. If I hadn’t stopped and talked that man, I never would’ve met him. And if I hadn’t done something that He asked me to do, I never would’ve gotten to know more about him. And if I never would’ve picked up the phone when he called and offered. To arrange two weeks of my life, I never would’ve experienced the privilege of so many parts of this world that have impacted my life and ministry, but how much more You have to offer each of us today help us to realize that more than wanting to win a lottery or get the perfect job and the right income.

You want to arrange our lives for us if we’ll but listen to you day by day and yield to You moment by moment. And stay under your authority and to submit and live in Your power through Your Spirit. Teach us what that means. Oh Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask it. Amen.

That little two weeks of my life was fun in an earthly sense, but it certainly taught me a lesson. When you think about an offer like Carl gave me, that’s phenomenal. This guy bought anything in sight, had it shipped home. I never saw anything like it. But imagine an offer like that from God. And that’s what Psalm 16:11 tells us. And it’s not just for 10 days, but God says, I want to give you today and forevermore.

The Lord God of the universe wants to arrange our lives. He wants to accompany us in the trip through life, and He wants to authorize everything that we need from now on. And that’s the best life there is. And that’s what the Christian life is all about. You say, does that mean I’m going to have a perfect life with no problems?

Turn from Psalm 16 to Psalm 105 with me, ’cause I want to introduce you to a few characters that believe this, and I want to show you what happened in their lives.

The first one is Joseph. Joseph had a stress-filled life and in Psalm 105:17-19, it gives his testimony. He was deserted by everyone, spoiled by his dad, hated by his brothers, abused, enslaved, sold, deported for the financial gain of his family members. He was used and set up and unjustly accused and imprisoned by his own employer. He was chained, tormented, and forgotten in jail. And then God vindicated elevated him and used him.

And here’s his testimony of his life. Psalm 105, look at verse 17. He, that’s God, sent a man before them, that’s the children of Israel, Joseph, that’s who we’re talking about, who was sold as a slave, that’s what I just described.

Most people don’t know the 18th verse. They hurt his feet; they tormented him. He was abused, tortured, you might say he was pained in his imprisonment. You watch the Disney video of Joseph. It’s not quite as bad as it was really. He was tormented with fetters. He was laid in irons. The 18th verse says, but here’s the key of his life, verse 19, until the time that his word came to pass.

The word of the Lord tested him. So, God says, Joseph, I want to show you the path of life and if you’ll stick with Me, and My presence is fullness of joy, even in jail, and at My right hand. If you’ll stick with Me, what I have planned for your life will give you pleasures forevermore. I bet that was hard. I bet at times he wanted to take stuff in his own hands, but God didn’t let him.

Look at Psalm 139, just a little bit more to the right. Here’s another famous person’s testimony. And we could spend the entire hour on any one of these. I want to get to another one, but David, in Psalm 139 wrote his testimony.

David was a bloody man. He killed more people than anybody else in his era. He started killing predators when he was just a little tiny fella, bears, and lions. He graduated killing giants when he was a teenager. He went on to slay tens of thousands while he was in his twenties, tens of thousands of humans he had killed.

In fact, he was such a man of blood as a swordsman, a slinger, a spearman, and a deadly warrior that God said he was too much of a man of blood and he couldn’t build the Temple of God. Yet he was God’s man. Why is that? Look at the last two verses of Psalm 139. This is the attitude we have when we pick up this Book and when we spend time in it.

Every day when we get to read this book, when we get to, to sit before God in the time that we have reserved as our appointment in our date with him, this is what’s going on. Psalm 139:23, search me, oh God, know my heart. Try me. Know my anxieties. See if there’s any wicked way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way. That is saying, Lord, I want You to arrange my life. Lord, I want You to accompany me all the way through this life. And Lord, I want to be under Your authority and power, and I want You to guide me into those forevermore pleasures. David knew it. We go into Paul’s life. Paul had a rough life, but he trusted the Lord, but let’s go on to another book.

Let’s go to Jeremiah chapter 15. That’s where we’re going to kind of almost finish up. So, it goes Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Okay, Jeremiah chapter 15. And what I want to show you there is that this works even if you don’t have a happy, going to seven countries in limousines, life of leisure, okay?

Because Jeremiah was anything but that. Jeremiah had a tragic life. He was called the weeping prophet. He wept more than anybody else we know of in Scriptures. He was the one of the neediest biblical figures. He was the weeping prophet. Not only ’cause he had compassion, but most of all because he had such a tragic life.

And if you’ve never studied the book of Jeremiah before we get to chapter 15, if you flipped through this book, and I would encourage you to do it, Jeremiah’s woes recording the Scripture are unimaginable. We have such peaceful lives. He had a completely upturn, tragic, desperate life. He lived through the death throes of the final generation of the nation of Judah.

In chapter 11, we find out that from an earthly perspective, Jeremiah’s life was an absolute failure. During his lifetime, he watched God’s people decay. They were horribly destroyed. They were deported to the nation of Babylon, and that is after he preached for 40 years. In chapter 11 from 19 to 23, he didn’t have a single respondent. He didn’t have a single person. That was visibly, outwardly changed through his ministry. Not one that he could point to after 40 years, no visible results among those he served. Instead, his countrymen that he warned for God’s sake sought to kill him if he wouldn’t stop preaching to them. He had no one, in chapter 12, to find joy and comfort in as his own family and friends were involved in plots against him.

In chapter 16, God says, you’re never going to have the joy of a godly home because you may not get married. And he had agonizing loneliness his whole life. He saw everybody else. He was from a priestly family. In fact, did you know who his dad was? The priest that found the scroll that was hidden during the reforms of Josiah, they cleaned the Temple out. When they were shoveling out all the debris and all the idols and everything else down in a box, they found the hidden scroll. The Word of God had been lost for one generation, and they found that was his dad. But yet he never got to have a godly home. God says, you’ll be incredibly agonizingly lonely. Chapter 16, verse 20.

He was under a constant death threat. Chapter 18. People plotted to kill him in secret and that he had to live with Chapter 20. He was in physical pain all the time from his many beatings. They were always beating his body. When they got done beating him, they put him in the stocks, pillar and stock him. And so, his joints were stretched out. Talk about arthritis. He had it. He had emotional pain.

Chapter 20 verse 10. People spied on him. They tried to deceive and deceitfully revenge against him. In chapter 20, verse 14, he was consumed with sorrow and shame. In fact, like Job even cursed the day he was born. His own life ended with no relief. He was falsely accused of being a traitor. He was arrested, beaten, thrown in a dungeon starved for many days. If he hadn’t been rescued with that cloth rope and pulled out of the muck, he would’ve died down there. And he ended up being taken off to Egypt and killed down there. The guy had a very desperate life, a tragic life.

But what helped him through that life, that’s where he had you turn. Look at Jeremiah 15 of verse 16, because whether you have endless joy-filled life of pleasures, or if you have an endless joy filled life of trials, here’s what God’s word offers us.

Jeremiah 15:16, Your words were found. That means you have to take the Bible, you have to open the Bible, you have to pray that the Lord open your eyes, and you have to start getting into it. And I ate them. That’s what his description of having his devotional time, that’s the way he described it. He says, I found Your Word and I ate ’em. I made them personal. I incorporated them into my life. I didn’t just read I had my devotions. It’s over with. I checked off my box. I did that already. No. It was like a meal. It was a feast. He just came and he prepared himself and he opened it to a great basket of treasures, and he began eating. He began making them his very own. That’s how he described the Word of God.

And look at this, and your word was, to me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Now wait a minute. What did he go through? Stocks beating dungeons pits. Never got to be married, agonizingly, lonely, just totally deserted by his whole family, deserted by his whole countrymen, called from his mother’s womb to be a prophet.

And yet nobody responded to his 40 years of ministry. But Look what he says your word was to me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. What’d you rejoice about Jeremiah, your family? You didn’t have one. Your wife, you didn’t have one. Your children, you never had any. Your ministry, you didn’t have one. What’d you rejoice on?

Look at the end of verse 16. This is what I rejoice in. I am called by Your name, oh Lord, God of hosts. Jeremiah lived after David and Jeremiah knew the word of God very well, and I’m sure that Jeremiah had taken that Psalm 16:11 promise and said, Lord, you’ll show me the path of life. You’re going to make the arrangements for my life.

And God arranged for him to be in Hilkiah’s family. He arranged for him to grow up in the family that found the Word of God and he probably was hearing his dad come trump and yelling home, carrying that scroll, saying, I found the Book and I’m sure he was thrilled as his dad started reading to him from the Word of God. And God said, if you’ll stay in My presence, I’ll give you a fullness of joy. And that’s what he testifies.

To make a long story short. How can we do that? How can we find God’s word and eat it and have it to be the joy and rejoicing of our heart? Let me suggest this. You need to plan, or you need to recommit to a plan to spending time in this book every day. Every Word of God is pure man shall not live by bread alone, by every Word, and you and I need to never be beyond the inconveniencing of ourself to be with God.

Now, let me read you one testimony. I’ve read you this before, but I just love it and I want to remind you of it because a lot of people say, I just don’t have time right now in my life. I have small children, or I’m in school, or I’m just starting out my business or my career, or I’m so old, my eyes aren’t very good, whatever. Everybody has an excuse, and I just don’t have time.

Let me share with you one man whose life has touched mine. He was the most decorated general of the Korean War, Lieutenant General William K. Harrison. And I could read his pedigree. This guy won the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Congressional Medal of Honor the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for valor and the Purple Heart. He was one of the only generals ever wounded in action. He was at the head of the charge. He was an amazing guy.

Do you know what this man did when he was 20 years old? And in military training, he was challenged as I’m challenging you to make time for God. And before he was commissioned as an officer, he promised the Lord that he would give him for the rest of his life one half hour.

Now think of what you get in a half hour. 50 commercials on tv. No, not really. A half of a television show or one fourth of a movie. Just think what a half hour is. One local newscast. Surfing the internet for tidbits of, inane stuff. What can you do with a half hour? That’s not very much unless you give it to God.

You know what he did with his? He found out, and listen to his testimony, he says it only takes 80 hours to read the whole Bible. And so, the program I commence in military school is I will give God a half hour of reading his Word every day for the rest of my life. What did that gain him? He found out in a half hour a day he could read the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament through four times a year.

So, four New Testaments and one Old Testament. He got through the Word of God four times New one Old for 70 years. He did this till he was 90. When he was a 90-year-old man, he was still reading the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament through four times a year. Did you know as his eyesight was failing at age 90, he’d read the Old Testament 70 times, and he’d read the New Testament 280 times. Do you know what that means? He had most of it memorized ’cause he’d read it so many times. This man was such an example.

We need to realize that we can most listen to God by reading his word. This is the voice of God, and we must listen. It’s a, it’s an amazing thing that a Christian can imagine, that they could live a Christian life without regularly reading their Bible.

That’s impossible. Our minds are such that we don’t retain what we need to know. We need to be refreshed again and again. It. And there are some who have been believers for years who’ve never even read the Bible once, and that means for them, there are truths of God that they have never inconvenienced themself enough to discover.

No wonder people are so confused. No wonder that they never know that God is arranging their life. They didn’t even know that verse was in there, and they didn’t know that if they stood in His presence all the time, that they would’ve fullness of joy and they didn’t know that, that they yielded to His authority and allowed Him to empower their lives. They would have forever more pleasures. They thought they were in charge of that, and they were not doing a good job of it. God says, expose yourself to My Word.

You know what a great commitment would be? That you cut something out of your life to fit a half hour for God in. And in that half hour, maybe you want to be a General Harrison, you want to read the New Testament four times a year in the old ones, or maybe you just want to spend half of it reading the Bible all the way through and memorize and meditate the other half of your half hour. But something.

Why? Because and here’s the last verse I want you to underline. Look at Psalm 119. This is the attitude that will give us this discipline of the scripture, Psalm 119 and starting in verse 97. The longest chapter in the Bible talking about the wonders of God’s Word. But Psalm 119:97 tells us the attitude that we must have in our life if we are going to have this discipline of Scripture.

And this is what the Psalmist says, oh, verse 97, oh, how I love Your Law. I love it so much. I meditate on it all day long, and so Your commands make me wiser than my enemies and they’re ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers. I meditate on Your statutes. I have more understanding in the elders. I obey Your precepts.

Do you see the heartbeat of the man of God? Do you see the heartbeat of the servant of God? Do you see the heartbeat of those who take God up and say, I want to discipline myself for godliness. I love Your Law so much that I want to. To know You well enough so that I can follow the arrangements You’ve made.

I’ve always thought many times I thought, what if when I was steaming along in the hospital and I saw that guy and I fell to my heart, I needed to minister to him? What if I’d have said, are you kidding? I’ve already made one call. I don’t need to do another. You know what? I would’ve had a happy, wonderful life.

I would’ve just missed a great blessing of God in my life. And what if when I talked to that fellow as he laid in bed and got done with the scripture, and he said, could you help me if I said, no, I’m too busy or I’m too poor, I only have $2, and you’re certainly not going to get both of them. You know what?

If I’d have said that, just think what I would’ve missed. And what about if I hadn’t answered the phone when he called my house and asked me out to dinner? And what about at dinner if he’d have said, you want to go on the trip? And I said, no, I don’t want to go on the trip. Just think what I would’ve missed.

That’s all. Nothing compared to if you miss God saying, I want to show you the path of life. I want to make the arrangements for your life. I want to teach you how to stay in my presence all the time, even when you’re in a dungeon, in a pit like Jeremiah. I want to give you fullness of joy through your pain and suffering and trials.

And what if we never take the time to know what God wants us to do so we don’t stay at His right hand? Then we won’t enjoy pleasures forevermore. I would encourage you, make plans to make the discipline of Scripture in your life. Meet with God every day. Set aside a half hour and say, God, speak to me. Show me Your arrangements for my life. Help me know Your presence. Help me to yield to Your authority and stay at Your right hand forevermore. And I’ll tell you what, you’ll live a life as unbelievable ’cause you’ll live the life that God designed you to live with him arranging it for you.

Let’s bow together and ask him to help us to decide this morning we’re going to have the discipline of Scripture in our lives. Father in Heaven, I thank You for Jeremiah’s life. If Jeremiah could have joy eating Your Word in the dungeons and pillars and stocks and all the danger he was in, and adversity and abuse and loneliness, and without wife or children, I pray that we would learn that You’re the same God. Your grace is sufficient for us. That You want to show us the pathway of life. You want us to know Your presence, so we have fullness of joy, and You want us to stay at Your right hand of authority and power forevermore. I pray that we would make decisions to that end for the days that You have for us ahead. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Independence Day reminds us how dangerous the world is, and how costly our freedom and security can be. For 227 years our peace and safety has cost us the blood of many patriots and soldiers. Constant vigilance is needed to keep our freedom and safety secure nationally.

One of our great responsibilities as individuals is to protect those we love. One of my great duties as a husband is to protect my wife and children. This duty and responsibility shows up as we lock the doors at night, listen to weather advisories, remind them to buckle up, watch for suspicious characters when we drop them off places, warn them to be careful – all because we love them and want to protect them. Constant vigilance is needed to keep our freedom and safety secure physically.

This was brought home to me vividly this week as Bonnie and I sat on the edge of the great Huron National Forest that stretches across Northern Michigan. This beautiful area has nearly one million acres of trees, with 9 pristine rivers running for 550 miles, crisscrossed by 330 miles of trails. Late Monday night, under those towering oaks and ancient jack pines we watched the stars as our children slept in three tents under one giant oak tree.

Just as we were ready to stop talking and head to bed I switched on my flashlight and made a wide arc across the rolling hillside in front of us, hoping to see a deer grazing on the lush green grass. Instead we both gasped; there in the distance loping across the hillside was a pair of glowing yellow eyes that reflected back at about the size of a half dollar. Bonnie was sure it was some fierce carnivore. So dad was dispatched with a stick and the flashlight to go out and meet the creature and to defend our sleeping and unprotected children.

As parents we saw a danger. As those entrusted with the care and protection of those small lives, we had to act. Lurking in the million acres of dark shadows of the night were creatures that could harm the lives we love so much. After quite a chase I ran the forest monster up a tree, only to turn back to find two more sets of glowing yellow eyes headed out another thicket of trees. After rolling stones, banging sticks and waving my flashlight – those next two were warded off. The good news was that these monsters turned out to be harmless coons on their way to the camp trashcan. But the memory of creatures of the night stalking our children was unforgettable.

As I lay quietly listening to the sounds of the forest that evening my mind turned to something far more dangerous than a Huron national Forest wild animal. Those animals could only scratch and scare my children. No, I began to think of the spiritual forces of darkness, of creatures for more lethal than any that roamed the forest.  What can I do to protect and guard my life and the lives of those I love from dangers that lurk in the spiritual darkness seeking to injure the souls of those loved ones? What does God say we need to do to stay safe and secure here on earth? Constant vigilance is needed to keep our freedom and safety secure spiritually.

A safe, secure, and liberated life is described in God’s Word as ‘word filled’. As Paul said, a Spirit filled believer has the Word richly dwelling or filling them. But how is that possible? To find out we need to turn our hearts to Psalm 119. There EZRA explains the secret of maintaining a Word Filled Life – the only sure protection in the dark spiritual forests of life into which we — and our loved ones, must walk each day.

Our focus is that Old Testament Giant of the Faith – EZRA. His testimony is the 119^th Psalm. He gives us in these 176 verses the content of his personal HABITS or RESPONSES to the Lord, and his personal resolves or HOPES in the Lord.

Remember, there are 22 stanzas of 8 verses each.

Stanza’s begin with “A” and continue with successive Hebrew alphabet lettering.

This is called an acrostic. In the Psalms there are 8 other acrostic Psalms. These are Psalms 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 145

To best comprehend the acrostic concept let me read the literal Hebrew translation. In The Psalms Chronologically Arranged the compilers show ho the Psalm would look if the English alphabet were used in this way; and here is an example of Theodore Kubler’s treatment, in respect of Daleth (d) in verses 25-32.

• 25   Depressed to the dust is my soul: Quicken Thou me according to Thy word.
• 26   Declared have I (to Thee) my ways, and Thou heardest me: Teach me Thy statutes.
• 27    Declare Thou to me the way of Thy precepts: So shall I talk of Thy wondrous works.
• 28   Dropping is my soul for heaviness: Strengthen Thou me according to Thy word.
• 29   Deceitful ways remove from me: And grant me Thy law graciously.
• 30   Determined have I upon the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid before me.
• 31    Deliberately have I stuck unto Thy testimonies: Lord, put me not to shame.
• 32   Day by day I will run the way of Thy commandments, When Thou shalt enlarge my heart.

Ezra’s testimony is in two areas: his habits (the “ I haves”) and hopes (the “I wills”), or to put it differently – his spiritual responses and his Scriptural resolves!

One of the first things we notice as we look into this Psalm is the intensely personal nature of these verses seen in the overwhelming use of the 1^st person pronoun “I”.

These 176 verses have in all 176 mentioned God.

In 173 God’s word is mentioned.

He refers to himself 325 times as “I”, “me”, and “my”.

A Word-Filled Life is a Life with Habits of Scriptural Responses

First, Ezra shares in Psalm 119 a list of his Habits or SPIRITUAL RESPONSES he had cultivated toward the Lord. There are at least 10 of them.

1. He wanted the Lord. Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
2. He wanted the Word. Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  (Have you ever had a treasure so precious, or a possession so fragile, or a favorite cereal, drink, cookie, etc. that you wanted so badly — that you hid it away so that no one else could take it from you?)
3. He loved God’s ways. Psalm 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
4. He obeyed the Word. Psalm 119:22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.
5. He talked about God. Psalm 119:26I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
6. He followed the pathway of God. Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me. (Did you know your pathway either gets clearer and better, or darker and harder — ever day we follow that pathway? Proverbs 4:18-19 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. )
7. He was stuck to the Word. Psalm 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
8. He was excited about God! Psalm 119:35Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. (Do you know what one of my constant prayers is? That everyone who goes out on Saturday night and get fried by all the garbage in the movies would feel so miserable on the Lord’s Day that they would start figuring out that to watch things that so diametrically oppose God’s Way flattens your spiritual brain waves, deadens your spiritual appetite, and dampens your spiritual fervor. In other words – IT IS NOT WORTH IT!)
9. He feared disappointing God. Psalm 119:39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.  A teen once demonstrated this heart attitude as his friends suggested that they go to a certain restaurant for a good time.  “I’d rather go home, my parents don’t approve of that place.”  “Afraid your father will hurt you?” one of the girls asked sarcastically.  “No,” he replied, “I’m not afraid my father will hurt me, but I am afraid I might hurt him.” He understood the principle that a true child of God, who has experienced the love of God, has no desire to sin against that love.
10. He longed after the Lord. Psalm 119:40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.

A Word-Filled Life is a Life with Habits of Scriptural Resolves

So, First Ezra shares in Psalm 119 a list of his Habits or RESPONSES he had cultivated toward the Lord. Secondly, he records his hopes or RESOLVES

1. Psalm 119:7I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
2. Psalm 119:8I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
3. Psalm 119:15I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
4. Psalm 119:16I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
5. Psalm 119:32I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
6. Psalm 119:45And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
7. Psalm 119:46I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
8. Psalm 119:47And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
9. Psalm 119:48My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. (Literally ‘in my hands I will carry…’ God’s Word was close at hand).

So how did Ezra do this on a consistent basis? By meditation. Remember Meditation is a soul that thirsts and drinks of God in His Word; that longs for the waters of life and drinks them of God in His Word; that drinks from an ever present oasis in the arid, sun baked, lifeless deserts of life through finding and communing with God in His Word.

Seven times Ezra confesses his secret, it is called meditation (after finding God’s Word and eating it – then we digest or meditate upon it). Here is his pathway:

• PURIFYING MEDITATION, look at v.9. Psalm 119:15 I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
• ILLUMINATING MEDITATION, look at v. 18. Psalm 119:23 Princes also sit and speak against me, But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

3. REFRESHING MEDITATION, look at v. 25.Psalm 119:27 Make me understand the way ofYour precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.
4. TESTIFYING MEDITATION, look at v. 46.Psalm 119:48 My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.
5. REFINING MEDITATION, look at v.75.Psalm 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed, For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood; But I will meditate on Your precepts.
6. FOCUSING MEDITATION, look at v. 101.Psalm 119:99  I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.
7. INTERCEDING MEDITATION, look at v.147.Psalm 119:148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.

A Word-Filled Life is a Life with Habits of Scriptural Prayers

Finally, mediation freed Ezra to just ask the Lord for each area he needs to live fruitfully for the Lord. Remember Ezra faced a worldly congregation, soaked in all the worldly ways of Babylon and Persia. What was his plan to bring about lasting change in those he served? He started with his own life. He learned to point his heart frequently toward doing God’s Will.

Thirty-three times with eleven phrases, Ezra cries to the Lord.

The secret of his fruitful life was his choice to invite the Lord into every part of his life, and invite Him into every part of his day.

1. Teach me: 12; 26; 33; 66; 68; 108; 124;135.
2. Remove from me: 22.
3. Make me: 27; 35.
4. Give me: 34; 73; 125; 144; 169.
5. Revive me: 37; 40; 88; 107; 149; 154; 156; 159.
6. Help me: 86.
7. Save me: 94; 146.
8. Uphold me: 116; 117.
9. Redeem me: 134; 154.
10. Hear me: 145.
11. Deliver me: 153; 170.

So how do we adopt Ezra’s strategy? Here are so elements to practice getting alone with God.

• START WITH HIM: Try to spend at least 12 minutes each day in reading God’s Word and seeking to find one truth to hold on to all day long.
• SPEAK WITH HIM: From that time alone with God, think through your entire day. Ask HIM what would be the best use of your life for this day.
• STOP WITH HIM: Try to also get in the habit of a weekly time of evaluation. Just a half hour reflecting on where you are, and where you are headed in life and ministry.
• STAY WITH HIM: Finally, try one time of strategic planning each month, to truly reflect on life for a couple of hours. Take a spiritual retreat. Sit with a pad of paper, your calendar, and an open Bible. List your priorities for the next month. Pray over them, change them, decide upon them and then do them!

With each new year that comes, it is time to rethink our plans and priorities. To help us settle in on what the Lord desires for each of us, we need to refresh our minds with God’s plan. One key passage is I Timothy 4:7.

Paul says we are to discipline our selves towards godliness. What are the disciplines that encourage a godly life? Today we start on that study, The Disciplines of a Godly Life. The first and foremost discipline is the Discipline of the Scriptures.

Time alone with God in His Word, the Scriptures, is the great necessity of our spiritual lives. We need to be alone with God daily! We need to find times to get away alone. E. Stanley Jones once described time in the Scriptures as a “time exposure to God.” He used the analogy of his life being like a photographic plate which, when exposed to God, progressively bore the image of God in keeping with the length of exposure.

Please open with me to the center of your Bibles and find Psalm 16.11.

Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Let me start with the conclusion of my challenge to you from God’s Word. This verse thrills my heart because in these few words God says so much. He offers us three incredible and priceless benefits from the discipline of Scripture.

Now with that conclusion in mind, let me explain in an earthly way, what a life arranged by the Lord can be like. It all started in the fall of 1978. I was doing hospital visitation as a ministerial student in Greenville, SC. As I sped down one floor of the hospital to share Scripture and pray with a sick friend I glanced in the room next door. For that instant I caught sight of one of the most forlorn faces I’d ever seen in a hospital bed. After my visit I purposed to stop in and see if there was anything I could do to cheer that sad man next door. I slipped in, stood by his bed, read Scripture and prayed. I found he was one of the loneliest Christians I’d ever met. So since it was Thanksgiving time I said, “What can I do to encourage you?” To my surprise he brightened up and said “If you would bring me a Wendy’s ¾ pound triple burger it would mean so much to me for my Thanksgiving Dinner.”

Well, I did it. And an hour later I was back on my way to my apartment after my sharing a bit of Christ’s love to cheer that man up. He asked me for my name and address so we could keep in touch. I never knew how much that visit was going to end up impacting my life.

To make a long story short that man was a very wealthy heir to a Texas oil field family. He was along and away from family and the Lord sent me to his room at a moment he desperately needed comfort and hope.

Two weeks later I got a call from him asking when we could go out to dinner. When he arrived it was in an extended limo. We went to a place that had no prices on the menu, and our meal was prepared at our table. That evening he asked if I would join him for a week with his friends on a little trip. Being young and un-entangled in many responsibilities I said sure. That was the start of one of the amazing 10 days of my life as Carl and two friends (both are now pastors of churches) went on a whirlwind trip to England, Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy – all expenses paid.

The point of the story is that Carl made all the arrangements. I never had been to the places he took me. He had, and he arranged everything. We were picked up and chauffeured to sites, museums, restaurants, and plays. It was an unbelievable experience of the world the way the rich and famous travel. But more than that, it was a lesson for me that someone with greater resources, experience and knowledge can do a better job at arranging events than I could.

The Lord wants you to discipline yourself to get in His Scripture each day (daily bread, not by bread alone) so He can arrange, accompany, and authorize your life. Is your life authorized by God? Do you live under His authority? Is he making the arrangements for you to have the best life there can be here on earth? Does He accompany you through every moment of every day – filling your days and nights with joy? That is what the Lord offers us in the Scriptures.

• If you will listen to the Lord speak to you through the Word you can rest in His arrangements for your life. “You will show me the path of life”
• If you will listen to the Lord speak to you through the Word you can enjoy His companionship through life. “In Your presence is fullness of joy;”
• If you will listen to the Lord speak to you through the Word you can rest in His authority over your life. “At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”

Now, that was fun in an earthly sense, but what about an offer like Carl’s — only from GOD! And not just for 10 days — but for today and forevermore!  The Lord God of the Universe wants to Arrange your life, and Accompany you trip through life, and authorize everything needed from now on. Wow, that is the best life there is.

Joseph had a Stress-Filled Life (deserted by all) Psalm 105:17-19 He sent a man before them— Joseph—who was sold as a slave. 18 They hurt his feet with fetters,

He was laid in irons. 19 Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord tested him.

• Spoiled by his dad;
• Hated by his brothers;
• Abused, enslaved, sold, and deported for the financial gain of family members;
• Used, set up, unjustly accused, and imprisoned by his own employer;
• Chained, tormented, and forgotten in jail;
• Vindicated, elevated, and used by God.
• Because his life passed the test of God’s Word.

David had a Rough Life (bloody man killed more) Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

• David started killing predators (bears and lions) at a young age;
• David graduated to killing a giant while still a teen;
• David went on to slay “his ten thousands” while in his twenties;
• David was such a swordsman, a slinger, a spearman, and a deadly warrior – that God said he was too much a “man of blood” to build the Temple of God.
• Yet he was the man after God’s own heart.

Paul had a Dangerous Life (beaten more)  Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

• Paul was stoned, ship wrecked, and sleepless;
• Paul was hunted, hounded, and heckled;
• Paul was imprisoned, impoverished, and
• Paul was bruised, beaten, and banished;
• But he never stopped hoping in God’s Word.

Jeremiah had a Tragic Life (weeping prophet wept more) Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.

But maybe one Biblical figure was the neediest. He is known as the weeping prophet, partly for his compassion, and partly for his condition of sadness.

Jeremiah[1] must have had an incredible childhood. The Scriptures tell us God had chosen him before his birth to be a prophet. His family was notable in their service for the LORD. Life was exciting for the son of a high priest. Jeremiah 1:1     The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, (NASB)

One of the great blessings of Jeremiah’s life was that his dad was the one who found the lost book of the Law. How Jeremiah’s love for the Word showed through in his life as God’s prophet. He was the “son of Hilkiah” (Jer. 1:1) and as 2 Kings 22:8 records: “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.”  Note also Jeremiah’s uncle was Shallum husband of Huldah the prophetess. Jeremiah 32:7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. (KJV)

Jeremiah’s woes were unimaginable to our relatively peaceful lives. He lived through the death throes of the final generation of the nation of Judah.

• From an earthly perspective Jeremiah’s life was a failure. During his lifetime he watched the decay of God’s chosen people, the horrible destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the nation to Babylon.
• He preached for 40 years and saw no visible result among those he served. Instead those countrymen he warned for God sought to kill him if he wouldn’t stop preaching doom (Jer. 11:19-23). He had virtually no converts to show for a lifetime of ministry.
• He had no one to find joy and comfort with as his own family and friends were involved in plots against his (12:60).
• He never had the joy of a godly home because God never allowed him to marry, and thus he suffered incredibly agonizing  loneliness (16:20).
• He lived under a constant threat of death as there were plots to kill him in secret so no one would find him (18:20-23).
• He lived with physical pain while he was beaten severely and them bound in wooden stocks (20:1-2).
• He lived with emotional pain as his friends spied on him deceitfully and for revenge (20:10).
• He was consumed with sorrow and shame and even cursed the day he was born (20:14-18).
• His life ended with no relief as he was falsely accused of being a traitor to his own country (37:13-14). Jeremiah was arrested, beaten, thrown into a dungeon, and starved many days (37:15-21). If an Ethiopian Gentile had not interceded on his behalf he would have died there. In the end, tradition tells us he was exiled to Egypt, where he was stoned to death by his own people.

Now look again at Jeremiah 15.16. What kept Jeremiah going through the pits? The Discipline of Scripture!

How can we start cultivating time alone with God? Where do we start?

First, we can get alone with God most readily by reading God’s Word! This is the voice of God, we must listen. It is amazing that a Christian can imagine that he or she can live a Christian life without regularly reading the Bible, for that is impossible! Our minds are such that we do not retain what we need to know. They need to be refreshed again and again. Some who have been believers for years have never read the Bible through once. There are truths God has for us that we have not inconvenienced ourselves enough to discover. No wonder we are empty. What a difference reading the Word can make in our lives.

Dr. Harry Ironside, a man of little formal education but great power, read the Bible fourteen times by the age of fourteen. His mark is still on Chicago and indeed the entire world. Five pages a day is a good place to begin. Within a year you will have read the entire Bible. We begin to get alone with God only when we take God’s Word seriously as more important than our daily meals.

Lt. General William K. Harrison[2] was the most decorated soldier in the 30th Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II.

General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium, which he did at the head of the Allied forces. He received every decoration for valor except the Congressional Medal of Honor – being honored with the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart (he was one of the few generals to be wounded in action). When the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations Command – and because of his character and self-control was ultimately President Eisenhower’s choice to head the long and tedious negotiations to end the war.

General Harrison was a soldier’s soldier who led a busy, ultra-kinetic life, as also an amazing man of the Word.  When he was a twenty-year-old Cadet, he began reading the Old Testament once a year and the New Testament four times.  General Harrison did this until the end of his life.

Since it only takes 80 hours to read the entire Bible, this program General Harrison began obligated him to just ½ hour of reading God’s Word for each of the days of his life. Let me ask you, do any of us have ½ an hour to give away each day to cultivate the mind of Christ like General Harrison? How about 14 minutes to read God’s Word in a year? How about 3 minutes a day for the New Testament in a year?

Even in the thick of war he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two- and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed battles, so that when the war ended he was right on schedule.

When, at the age of ninety, his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times!  No wonder his godliness and wisdom were proverbial, and that the Lord used him for eighteen fruitful years to lead Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF).

General Harrison’s story tells us two things: it is possible for the busiest of us, to systematically feed on God’s Word. No one could be busier or lead a more demanding life than General Harrison. His life remains a demonstration of a mind programmed with God’s Word.  His closest associates say that every area of his life (domestic, spiritual, and professional) and each of the great problems he faced was informed by the Scriptures.  People marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to bring its light to every area of life. He lived out the experience of the Psalmist:

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. (119:97-100)

You must remember this: You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be deeply influenced by that which you do not know.  If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God – your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior morality. The only way to a Christian mind is through God’s Word!

Second, time alone in solitude with God comes through memorization. Mrs. Barnhouse said of her famous preacher husband:

Someone once asked him how long it had taken him to prepare a certain sermon. His answer was “Thirty years and thirty minutes!” He had immersed himself in the Bible from the time he was fifteen years old, when he memorized the Book of Philippians a verse a day until he knew the entire book by heart, then went on to other passages. He felt it was not enough to learn by rote — it had to be by heart; because you loved and believed it.

Why not begin with a verse — perhaps a verse a week — fifty-two in one year!

Few have lived as stressful and frenetic a life as Hudson Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission. But Taylor lived in God’s rest, as his son beautifully attests:

Day and night this was his secret, “just to roll the burden on the Lord.” Frequently those who were wakeful in the little house at Chinkiang might hear, at two or three in the morning, the soft refrain of Mr. Taylor’s favorite hymn [“Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art”]. He had learned that for him, only one life was possible—just that blessed life of resting and rejoicing in the Lord under all circumstances, while He dealt with the difficulties, inward and outward, great and small.

Third, we can learn to be alone with God by meditating on it. This is the secret of God’s great warriors. Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission, conquered immense hardships by daily meditation on God’s Word. Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor record this in his biography:

It was not easy for Mr. Taylor, in his changeful life, to make time for prayer and Bible study, but he knew that it was vital. Well do the writers remember traveling with him month after month in northern China, by cart and wheelbarrow with the poorest of inns at night. Often with only one large room for coolies and travelers alike, they would screen off a corner for their father and another for themselves, with curtains of some sort; and then, after sleep at last had brought a measure of quiet, they would hear a match struck and see the flicker of candlelight which told that Mr. Taylor, however weary, was poring over the little Bible in two volumes always at hand. From two to four a.m. was the time he usually gave to prayer; the time he could be most sure of being undisturbed to wait upon God.

Meditating upon the Word brings us immediately into the intimate presence of God, but too few are willing to pay the price.

“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. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:1–3).

1. T. Studd was one of God’s great servants. His life was like his grass hut, there were no doors to shut, he lived with – and for, his beloved pygmy tribes. How did he prepare to teach as many as 5,000 at a time? How did he get ready to disciple the scores of church leaders who came to sit at the foot of his cot every morning, so that he would awake to a sea of black faces and white teeth waiting for him to open the Book of God to them? Simply in his own words, may I read from his diary[3]dated February 7^th, 1886?

“The Lord is so good to give me a large dose of spiritual champagne every morning which brace one up for the day and night. Of late I have had such glorious times. I generally awake about 3:30 AM and feel quite wide awake, so I have a good read, and then have an hour’s sleep before I finally get up.

Studd’s family described these times as –

“A Bible is taken down from the shelf, and Bwana is alone with God. What passed between them in those silent hours was known a few hours later to all who had ears to hear.”

Studd continues in his diary,

” I find then that what I read is then stamped indelibly upon my heart all through the day; and that it is the very quietest of times, not a foot astir, nor a sound to be heard, saving that of God. If I miss this time I feel like Samson shorn of his hair and so of all his strength. I see more and more how much I have to learn of the Lord. I want to be a workman approved of the Lord, not just with a pass degree as it were. Oh how I wish I had devoted my early life, my whole life to God and His Word. How much I have lost by those early years of self pleasing and running after this world’s honors and pleasures.”

A modern spiritual Giant was George Mueller. His life may be distilled down to these words he wrote in a diary:

It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than 14 years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished…Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to the meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved and instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.[4]

[1] Sources used are: The Word of God; Baxter, Explore the Book; Scroggie, The Unfolding Drama; Christ in all the Scriptures; The Criswell Study Bible; Walk through the Bible; The Compact Guide to The Bible, Lehman Strauss, CHM, MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, p. 76-77, Sanders, Spiritual Discipleship, P. 129-136.

[2] Hughes, Discipline of a godly man, p. 76-77.

[3] C. T. Studd, Cricketeer and Pioneer, p. 57, 206.

[4] Scroggie, Method in Prayer, pp.17-18.

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