Greetings,
"Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause; but I will meditate in Thy precepts. Let those that fear Thee turn unto me, and those that have known Thy testimonies. Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes; that I be not ashamed." Psalm 119:78 - 80
Few days ago, I finished reading my bible through for the 46th time. Challenged at 15 years old, by dad, who was my pastor to read the bible through, I took that challenge. The Lord started doing a work in me at that time with my bible readings and devotional, "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon. Little did I know that all this would lead me to my present day commitment to read the Bible through twice a year on my knees. Challenged in this by my biographies of great saints that read the bible on their knees and read it over a 100 times in their life time. Read and challenged to set that for my goal. Memorize and re-memorize Psalm 119 twice a year; how this Psalm has filled me and taught me and called me unto Him in greater depths.
All of this to lead me to more and more revealing of certain words and phrases that jump out me and captivate my thoughts. These captivated thoughts are for the phrase here, 'I will meditate in Thy precepts". Meditate is used 14 times in the Bible; 5 of those are found here in Psalm 119. Meditate, chew on the word, the meaning, the purpose of the Word of God for my life and for those around me. And as you share that, glean from that, those that fear the Lord will want that also, for they have the same hungering and thirsting after righteousness that you have. They will come and hear and learn and apply as well. Iron sharpening iron to make it all for Lord's glory and honor. And to do my word/phrase studies; having just recently completed the two from last time reading through - 'Deliver' and 'Woe'. This bring me to over 30 word studies, and 12 phrase studies. And what is all this about? What is it for? It is found in these verses of Psalm 119:78 - 80, it is about meditation on the Word of God to the soul of man and shared to the hearts, minds and souls of men and women that fear the Lord as well.
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God shall last forever" Two things are eternal on this world - the soul; and the Word of God. and that which is so important to last forever should be invested in by His children. The labor of prayer is what continues to increase, promote and secure the work of the Word of God in the soul of man for the saving of it. And the Lord has called me to invest in it all. a challenge from Him to be more than what I thought I might be. and that I can say with Paul, 'I am what I am by the grace of God.'
all of this is a process in this life for the work while here and the preparation for the eternal world to come. and all of us have this calling upon us to 'war a good warfare'. I have lost 3 close brethren this year, saints that have passed on into eternity. I walked with them right to the end. the third one is only a matter of days or hours away from exited this life and entering that life. All due to cancer. but everything of our time invested in the Word, in prayer is about that time of death that secures us to be able to say, 'I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, my course is finished.' Each one said to me, 'I wish I could have done more. Oh, that I had given more time to the Word and prayer.' Brethren, take a word of truth from the dead and dying. 'These men being dead still speak.' What are you investing in? What are you living for? Your getting ready to finish a year, 2017, what have you done? grown in? matured in? finished?
These word and phrase studies have been a process of this growth that have fed me for years - two of the greatest of these is the 'I will's of God' over 2000 of them in the bible of God saying, "I will' Brethren this is an absolute! And the other phrase study is all the questions of the bible. Oh, how these have spoke to my soul and helped me, as well as gave me food to bring to the hungry in bible studies and church services. They are etched throughout my prayer notebook, my prayer phrases and my understanding of Who God is and what is doing. How much we fly over the Word, miss out on and yet it is there before us to glean daily. Give time and place to know the Word of God and to know the God of the Word.
One of the things for the close of this year and the preparation for the New Year is to meditate on the Word of God. Let it saturate your prayer life, your communication with others. Allow for it to feed you and cause you to continue to 'grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord'. Read the Word, study it, memorize it, pray it but don't forget to meditate on it. The Holy Spirit will honor the Word to the soul that fixes itself for Him to allow for His image to be on our lives. and those that see and hear us will say of us, 'they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus'.
Be a man or woman of prayer because the Word of God has lit your fire to seek and be much before Him.
"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed; but rightly dividing the Word of God'
Prayer Targets:
--Dec. 5 - oral arguments in front of the supreme court for religious freedom & speech; this will set the determined future for our nation and the church; And I fear that the Lord will allow for the court to rule against religious freedom as a continued judgement on the church for its failure. 'who knows if the Lord will turn and repent and leave a blessing behind Him' therefore I will pray;
Was pleased to read that Ronnie Floyd set the prayer call last night for NDP for this important issue. Many of the church are unaware of its implications or even about the court case.
--drugs - push to fight drug war with more treatment centers with drugs; deaths will approach or exceed 70,000 this year;
--abortion rates are reported down by CDC; however, acknowledge and know that adultery and fornication is still at an all time high; day after pill and contraceptives are the greater reason for the lower numbers, not that abortion is less desired by our nation;
--boko haran soliders attacked NE villages of NIgeria; all these years and this evil continues; ISIS is lessened but evil is still prevalent;
--more pestilence and disease - Hepatitis A in CA is unreal with defecating in the streets;
--North KOrea launch heightens response;
--teachers/student sex cases continue; epidemic numbers across our nation;
Updates:
--Dec. 1 start bible through again; word study - 'Destroy/Devour' & 'Holy'; phrase study - 'PLEASE GOD" most of these I already have marked, just need to document them;
--finished Matthew in 47th time through with word/phrase study copying old bible to new bible;
--prayer emails will no longer be sent via mailchimp; I will continue to post them here on my blog;
--sermons uploaded and broadcast on Sundays from ustream account and uploaded to youtube page;
--facebook live stream I've been trying to do once a week to share prayer targets and updates;
--24/7 prayer chain - http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090945a4aa2da75-2471/58736439 this is the greatest work needed right now; please go to web site and sign up.
--A Word blog - closing in on 1,900 Scriptures done; currently verses by verse in Isaiah 49: 1 - 8 for this month;
--DanBiser.blogspot.com which this is, not only am I writing my prayer emails from here; but it is also all my other writings; currently started several other projects
1. The Prayer Life - I wanted to cover some of the more in-depth aspects of prayer, more centered in on spiritual warfare and the hour of prayer;
2. The Paradoxes of God - I wanted to document these 2 dozen Scripture that reveal God's nature and ways; I believe most do not know Who God is nor how He works; These are really revealing in our approach to God and in prayer times
3. Seeing that the remedial judgements of September and October, I was and am moved to write on the warning of God when they are given and the response of the people to adhere or to reject or to ignore them this is where we are right now
until,
dan
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