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Mind, emotions, living

“I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path” Psalm 119.104 NIV.

Love for and obedience to God’s word is the way to

  1.  A sound mind (understanding, grasping and discerning the truth),
  2. Reliable emotions (hate),
  3. Right living (path).

Points by J.A. Motyer, “Psalms” NBC21, p. 569.

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Lessons behind Ezra’s decision

Ezra 7.10

  1. You cannot teach what you do not know and live. It must start with me. God can powerfully use one who is decided and committed. He looks for dedicated people for critical times. (All times are critical!)
  2. Lasting change comes from the word of God. The power to transform is in the Sacred Letters. After the exile, they turned to the written word. After Jesus, we turn to the New Testament.
  3. The Lord blesses those who commit themselves to his word, v. 9. (NLT on v. 10: “This was because …”) God makes it all happen. He opens the doors.
  4. Ezra’s studies and activities “reveal his commitment to purity of worship” (P.R. House, OTT) and to purity of the nation as God’s people (chap. 9). May our agenda include such purity!

 

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Let God’s love console me

Psalm 119.73-80

  1. Since God created us and gave us life, we ought to seek his guidance on how to live, 73.
  2. A life which has God as its hope gives joy to many, 74.
  3. It is not because God doesn’t love us that he disciplines us, but because he does, 75.
  4. Such love of God’s consoles us in all our disappointments and frustrations, 76.
  5. Delight in God’s law opens his compassion and frees us to live, 77.
  6. The righteous does not waste time agonizing over the arrogant, but focuses on God’s precepts, 78
  7. In the midst of opposition, God’s people come together for mutual strength, 79.
  8. We pray, at last, that the heart may be wholly devoted to God’s statutes to avoid humiliation before him, 80.
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As Holy Branches

God, let your Word not condemn us,
We hear and do, we love and know,
Believe, obey, in grace we grow;
As holy branches, let it trim us.

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In these do our knowledge of you consist

Lord, it sometimes seems a far thing from words on a page to an intimate, dynamic relationship with you. In our minds, we look for the physical touch, the visual cues. But, between humans, these often belie a lack of relationship behind them.

In the Bible, you speak from your heart to ours, marvelous truths of yourself and us to minds perfectly created as receptacles of these reverent thoughts. Continue reading “In these do our knowledge of you consist”

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Let the Word grab me and change me

Heavenly Father, through your Scriptures get my attention and direct my thoughts. Transform mind and soul through words of power, words that created world, rose men from the dead, and confounded enemies.

Let your words bring peace and fullness to all us troubled spirits who ransack the world for satisfaction.