His Words dwelling in you Richly?

"Struggling to get into the Word each day" can be likened to "labouring to enter into rest". (Hebrews 4:11) There may be an initial struggle at first, as we leave our daily chores and routines, in order to spend time with our Lord Jesus - the living Word. This is a problem that Martha faced - there seems many tasks that need to be done. For Martha, it is mainly kitchen service, yet her absence away from the Lord has caused her to become troubled and worried about many things, perhaps not enough time to prepare the meal for her guests, or ingredients running out, or the feeling of being left alone by her sister Mary to serve in the kitchen, and the feeling of resentment rising up in her dear heart. How many times have we found ourselves in a similar situation as Martha? Even as I am typing this, I am in office on Saturday morning, yet to embark on the tasks I have planned to do - a church assignment as well as office assignments. Somehow I feel led to read Yahoo! Answers first. :)

Alright, so our Lord Jesus has given Martha, as well as us all, His solution and exhortation - "But ONE thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:42) Like Martha, I can choose to be troubled and worried about my assignments. I can choose to feel alone since my colleagues are not with me in office. But praise be to God, He has established me in His word, assuring He is always with me, and teaching me to do the one thing necessary - to sit at His feet and listen to His words.

Satan will not be happy whenever we spend time with the Word. He may send distractions along the way, to try to steal God's word from our hearts. Hence, we need to prevent him from moving us out of the place of rest. We must know that the safest place we can be is to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, for in the secret place of the Most High, the enemy cannot find or touch us. We are safe in His presence. May we continue to cultivate His presence by reading His words, or listening to the gospel of grace or worship songs, and meditating on what we have read or listened. May we ensure that we do not lose our taste and hunger for the richness of His words. Here's sharing a passage from Job which I discovered yesterday:

"Hear my words, you wise men;

give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

For the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food."

(Job 34:2-3)

Isn't it interesting? We taste words by hearing and testing them. Whenever we discern that we are hearing the word of Christ being preached, which ministers grace and truth, then we know we have tasted that the Lord is good. "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (1 Peter 2:2-3) Hence, we know when we taste and experience the grace of our Lord, we have tasted that He is good.

Therefore, we need to seek the Lord to open our eyes daily to see more of His grace, His mercy, His beauty, His loveliness. Grace is all we need, for grace is the breath of God. The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet "Hei" means "breath" and "5" is the number of grace. Without God's life-giving breath, we would be lifeless and spiritually dead. Grace is also the Person of Jesus Christ. "Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:16-17)

Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39), and so He did a divine bible study with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus to expound to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets. (Luke 24:27) I believe the two disciples saw the glory of Jesus being revealed in the Old Testament in the types and shadows - the ark of the covenant, the lampstand, the table of showbread, how Jesus was typified in the story of Joseph and his brothers, how Joseph showed grace and mercy to his brothers in the end, and so on. And as they saw and experienced how gracious our Lord is in providing for His own children, such as providing manna in the wilderness, water from the rocks, etc even though they were undeserving, their hearts were warmed by His love. Indeed later they exclaimed to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32) O may we all seek to have this kind of divine Bible Study with our Lord Jesus like the two disciples did, to ask him to open our spiritual eyes to behold Him in the Bible, for when we see His beauty, His glory and grace, our hearts will be warmed too. We will cease to struggle from our daily worries, and simply rest in His love, knowing His love will carry us through each day, dispensing grace for every need, wisdom for every task and strength for every journey. Grace ensures we stay hot and not lukewarm, for grace causes us to depend fully on Jesus as our All in All. (Revelations 3:14-22)

This is my encouragement for my brothers and sisters in Christ - to seek to have an Emmaus Walk experience with Jesus, through divine bible study, through listening to the gospel of grace being preached, or anointed worship songs. And thank God that we have this platform where we can share our experiences and lessons with one another, so that we can encourage and lift up one another to grow deeper in the Word and experience more of His grace and goodness in our walk in Him.

God bless you, sister Sandy.

We are all creatures of habit. We can develope bad habits or we can develope good habits. Studying God's word is a good habit and we go along and read and study his word for a time, then Satan comes and gets us out of the habit.

How do we over come Satan? Just say no, and if we don't feel like reading God's work one day, read it anyway even if it is just a few verses.

Been there, done that and I know if you miss reading a day or two, it's gets easier not to read. And pretty soon you think, I have not read my Bible in a month.

This habit thing we get into also applies to attending worship and Bible study. We miss a couple of Sundays going then it becomes easy

not to go. That old Devil has goten to us again and again we have to say "get behind me Satan."

Matthew 6:23 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We really do need to watch our hearts, for it is what is in our hearts that we will be judged. Look at David, he did a lot of very bad things in his life, yet God said "He was a man after his own heart."

Why, how could this be? Because when David did sin he repented of his sins right then. David had a pure heart, a good heart.

Matthew 22:37 tells us to love the Lord with all our hearts.

Romans 10:10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Yes, we really have to watch our hearts and make them tender toward God and putting Him first always in our lives.

Blessings

Good question a star for you!!

Your question is great, but hard to answer briefly -- and I think simple answers are easier for people to try to apply. So, here goes my attempt at brevity:

"Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth" John 17:17

"Consequently faith comes by hearing (aka reading) the word..." Rom. 10:17

"to the obedience that comes through faith" -- Rom. 1:5

"They perish because they refuse to love the truth (the word) and so be saved"

If you are struggling with sin, you just need more faith. Reading will rebuild that faith, and you will become more obedient. Not loving the word makes you vulnerable to all sorts of sins, half truths, false teachings, etc., and can put your faith and relationship with God in danger.

To end on a positive note, who wouldn't want to have the heart, faith, and relatioship with God of David? David wrote in Ps. 119:99-100 "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. "

Good question. You should include some of your own insights!

When the Word of Christ dwells in us richly we find ourselves making godly choices rather than selfish choices or some other kinds of bad ones or bad attitudes. Being in Christ makes all the difference in the world. We cannot be mean-spirited or living in immorality while we are loving Christ and his word completely. We do need to cling to Christ who is the Word of God in order to overcome temptations and get through trials gracefully. Jesus is always our answer.

As you go through your regular Bible reading, keep note of the Bible verses which caught your attention. Sheer memorization would help you have a ready stack up knowledge of biblical verses. If you keep a devotional material behind your pillow, your morning devotions would help you focus your mind about spiritual matters. It is also useful to keep a notebook and take down the scripture verses as the preacher preaches during Sunday. You must preserve your notes and visit them as often as possible to remind you of spiritual truths. I reserve a big notebook with a title index and page number with date for this purpose. You can also try buying small cards containing Bible verses to memorize while waiting in a bus station. You can buy them from Christian bookstores.

Yes, I'm trying! But I draw more from others.

I only benefit from my brethren if they produce healthy fruit.