WATERED
BY THE WORD
BREAD
1 As the
deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for
the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalms 42:1-2 (NIV)
10 As the
rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without
watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for
the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not
return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose
for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11
(NIV)
16 When
your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I
bear your name, O Lord God
Almighty. Jeremiah 15:16 (NIV)
7 “But
blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends
out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are
always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear
fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV)
28 “Let
the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word
speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,”
declares the Lord, “and like a hammer
that breaks a rock in pieces?” Jeremiah
23:28-29 (NIV)
92 If
your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Psalms
119:92 (NIV)
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Matthew
5:6 (NIV)
37 On the
last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him.” John 7:37-38
(NIV)
13 Jesus
answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be
thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life.” John 4:13-14
(NIV)
16 All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for
every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
165 Great
peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. Psalms 119:165 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The
rabbis spoke of the text being like a gem with seventy faces, and each time you
turn the gem, the light refracts differently, giving you a reflection you
haven’t seen before. And so we turn the
text again and again because we keep seeing things we missed before. When you embrace the text as living and
active, when you enter its story, when you keep turning the gem, you never come
to the end. Inspired words have a way of
getting under our skin and taking on a life of their own. They work on us. We started out reading them, but they end up
reading us.” Rob Bell
“Nobody ever outgrows
Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
“When it comes to
hearing from God, I firmly believe the Bible is our source and authority. God's
Word is like a megaphone to His people. Throughout Scripture God speaks through
kings and queens, princes and prophets, poets and pilgrims. He speaks through
weather patterns, barnyard animals and even the stars in the sky. God is not
only creative, but He is persistent in getting our attention and communicating
with us.”
Margaret Feinberg
“Now
when a man has learned through the commandments to recognize his helplessness
and is distressed about how he might satisfy the law…and then being truly
humbled and reduced to nothing in his own eyes, he finds in himself nothing
whereby he may be justified and saved.
Here the second part of Scripture comes to our aid, namely, the promises
of God which declare the glory of God, saying, ‘If you wish to fulfill the
law….come, believe in Christ in whom grace, righteousness, peace, liberty, and
all things are promised to you. If you
believe you shall have all things; if you do not believe, you shall lack all
things’.” Martin
Luther
“Take heed that you do not glory in
your graces, but let all your glorying and confidence be in Christ and His
strength, for this is the only way you can be kept from falling. Pray more often. Spend longer periods of time in holy
adoration. Read the Scriptures more
earnestly and constantly. Watch your
lives more carefully. Live nearer to
God. Take the best examples for your
pattern. Let your conversation emit the
fragrance of heaven. Let your hearts be
perfumed with affection for the souls of others. So live that others may recognize that you
have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him…On, Christian, with care and
caution! On, with holy fear and trembling! On, with faith and confidence in Jesus alone,
and let your constant petition be, ‘Sustain me according to your promise.’ He, and He alone, is able ‘to keep you from
falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with
great joy.’”
Charles H. Spurgeon
“Scripture is like a lion. Who ever heard of defending a lion? Just turn it loose; it will defend itself.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Keep your constant hours every day with God. Begin the day with God, visit God in the morning before you make any other visit; wind up your hearts towards heaven in the morning and they will go the better all the day after! Oh turn your closets into temples; read the Scriptures. The two Testaments are the two lips by which God speaks to us; this will make you wise unto salvation. Besiege heaven every day with your prayer, thus perfume your houses.” Thomas Watson
HEART SAVOR
·
God’s
Word searches my soul, strengthening and satisfying my Spirit. It revives me as a garden well-watered enabling
me through the Spirit to emit the fragrance of Jesus to my encounters of the day. Not only am I the great loser if I neglect it,
so is everyone else around me.
- · God’s Word is alive and active. One cannot continue reading it and remain unchanged – they either change or quit reading. Always, always pray for wisdom before you begin. As the psalmist wrote: 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Psalms 119:18 (NIV)
- · God’s Word is True Truth.
