SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES (6)
I have recently written 5 blogs on the topic “Search the Scriptures” and much of the material is going into a 2 week sermon series of the same name, I preached the first sermon yesterday, physically I was not feeling at all well, but the Lord helped me, and their was a good response to the message.
I will be encouraging my listeners next Sunday to spend sometime slowly going through Psalm 119, and looking at every reference, to God’s Word, God’s statutes, God’s laws, And meditating on the context of every mention. Psalm 119 is very much the PSALM OF THE WORD and the author/s say so much about the Word and the benefits that flow from “searching the Scriptures”. I am sure I could write a number of blogs from all the references, but I am simply going to highlight two statements, (verses) that I memorised as a Sunday School boy. Firstly. Psalm 119: 165 NKJV Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble. The MESSAGE puts it this way : For those who love what you reveal, everything fits— no stumbling around in the dark for them.
We can have total faith in God’s Word, and can say “God says it, I believe it, that settles it” with that assurance, it gives us great peace, and there is no confusion, no misinterpretation, it is impossible to be stumbled or misunderstand God’s Word. I memorised the verse in the KJV, and the word stumbled in the KJV is translated offended and over the years, when I have been offended by something people have said or done, I have often felt, I needed to love the Word more, but “stumbled” is a better translation of the Hebrew word.
The second verse is Psalm 119:162 NKJV I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great treasure. There is the true story of 2 gold prospectors who stumbled on a piece of gold that became known as the “Welcome Stranger” it weighed nearly 100 kilos. Do you think the guys, said “that is far too heavy, I will get a bad back, or a hernia, let’s just forget it and bury it”. I am sure their reaction was, “I don’t care if I get a bad back or a hernia, this gold is ours, we are rich”, they were ecstatic about stumbling on this treasure.
MAY WE BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD, THAN DISCOVERING GOLD AMEN.