“It’s a Psalm 19 night!”

“It’s a Psalm 19 night!” used to be a frequent expression amongst my youth group. I introduced it to my youth group a couple of years ago after a conversation with my brother. It began on a beautiful starry night, my brother and I challenged each other to read Psalm 19 on nights like that. Thus “it’s a Psalm 19 night!” was born.

I told that story to my youth group one Wednesday night and then a few days later I got a text from a youth group member that simply said, “it’s a Psalm 19 night!” and I smiled! At a bonfire one fall, I turned to look up at the vast sky filled with what seemed like a zillion stars and Zach said, “I think Psalm 19 is my favorite passage of Scripture, it’s a Psalm 19 night!”

So tonight is a Psalm 19 night. I’m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, so I’m not predicting the skies to be clear and the stars visible. I’m just stating the fact that tonight at youth group we are going to look at Psalm 19.

Over the weekend I was at Word of Life’s Leadership Development Conference on Spiritual Warfare. Dr. Tim White, president of Cedarville College, was the key note speaker and he unpacked Psalm 19 in a wonderful way. I’m not going to preach his sermon tonight, but his talk did inspire me to take a closer look at this text. There is so much in this chapter and a slow reading, rereading and focus on it draws out so much for us today.

Tonight we are going to focus on how our souls desperately need regular time in the Word of God. Looking up at the stars is good. Taking a hike in the forest is good. Getting up early to watch the sun rise is good. Admiring the beauty of creation will conjure up and awe and wonder of God, which is what Psalm 19:1-6 tell us.

But the Hebrew word for “God” here is “el”, which is the most generic term for “God” in the Hebrew language (this I did steal from Dr. White haha). Nature is a testimony to the existence of “a god” or that “God” does exist. However, it does not tell you “who” God is.

We are in need of a special revelation, something that will tell us who this Creator God is. Oh wait, we have something! It’s the Bible, God’s Word. Psalm 19:7-11 tells us how God’s Word reveals to us that He is the LORD (YHWH) and that He is trustworthy. King David tells us that spending time in God’s Word will revive our soul, make us wise, bring joy to our heart, open our eyes, show us what is right and true, warns us, and leads us to great reward.

Who doesn’t want that? Read through that list again… spending time in God’s Word will revive our soul, make us wise, bring joy to our heart, open our eyes, show us what is right and true, warns us, and leads us to great reward. Wow! But how do I know that’s true?

Good question! King David answered that too.

The Bible is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, endures forever, true, and desirable. Look, God does not lie, He is trustworthy and faithful. His Word is perfect, inspired, alive and active. He won’t let you down, He won’t fail you, but you need to do the work to get into His Word to learn about Him.

Last night I watched the movie “Insanity of God” which highlights the persecuted church. I’d highly recommend it to you. How often does a movie convict you of selfishness and fear, brings you to tears, inspires you and brings joy to your heart? But those thoughts will have to be unpacked later.

Watching the story of our brothers and sisters around the world and how they cling to the Word of God as their “heart song,” reveals to me how much we in America take the Word of God for granted. The story of a believer locked in prison for over a decade and every time he got a scrap piece of paper, he’d write out everything he could remember about God’s Word. It was powerful and moving.

What if the Bible was ripped away from you? How much could you write down? What verses, praise songs, hymns would inspire you to keep holding on to your faith?

The movie put some things into perspective, but it’s hard for their reality to be ours. We are so far from the persecution. We are lulled to apathy through our prosperity and our technological distractions. But the very same God that has empowered Daniel in the lion’s den, Demitrov in the Russian prison, and the Somali believers who gave their lives is the God who is at work right here in Akron, Ohio.

And He wants to meet with you every day! Not just in some generic, general sense. No He wants a very personal meeting with you where you learn to trust Him and surrender to Him. He won’t let you down. He is worth it.

The rest of Psalm 19 (verses 12-14) is our humble response. It’s a prayer for God to keep us from sin, from getting caught up in this world and that our words and thoughts would please God.

In closing, David demonstrates the results of faithful pursuit of God through the Word. The Psalm opens with a generic “god” reference. It then leads to the revelation of the specific God, Yahweh. It concludes with “O LORD, my rock and my redeemer!”

Notice David’s personal encounter with the living God has brought a relationship that is undeserved and strong. “O LORD,” the faithful covenant keeping God, our heavenly Father. “My Rock,” the one who will not fail, He will not stumble, He is sure and steady. “My redeemer,” the one who brings hope in this life and the next through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

I know life is busy, mine is too. I know that there are stresses, worries and anxieties that preoccupy our thoughts. I know that there is another sports game tonight, and the latest episode is being released. I know that there are constant snap chats and Instagram posts to keep up with. But none of that brings life. None of that matters for eternity.

Only one book boasts that it can change both this life and the next. That is the Word of God. Make tonight a Psalm 19 night.

This sermon always helps me put into perspective how great our God is:

Spending Time In God's Word

I was standing on a corner of a busy and crowded New York City street engaging people in Gospel conversations. It was one of the most amazing and terrifying experiences I have ever had. By nature, I’d call myself an introvert who finds talking to strangers a very difficult task. But there I was, outside of my comfort zone and sharing Christ with complete strangers…and loving it!

Though that was many years ago, one man stands out in my memory. As he walked toward me and slowed down to talk, it became immediately obvious that he did not speak English. As he explained to, in his own language, that he did not speak English, I realized that I had a copy of the Bible in his language. I reached into my bag and offered it to him as a gift. He looked at it, read the title of it in his language, smiled, then he kissed the Bible and thanked me.

His response to the gift stands out to me. His immediate response was to kiss the Bible. The joy in which he received it and the way he immediately valued it taught me a huge lesson. The Bible is to be treasured!

Why don’t we treasure the Bible the way we should?

Distractions

We live in a day and age of distractions. Some of you won’t read this blog completely because Facebook is calling, or you received a new Snap, or…

Yep we are a distracted people. The average American will spend more than 5 hours a day watching TV and another 3-4 hours on some other device with a screen. That works out to 7-10 years of your life will be given to sitting in front of a TV by the time you are 70.

Music, TV, Movies, Social Media, Video Games and the list goes on fight for our time and attention. To what ends? They are filling our minds, heart and soul with messages. Sometimes they are good, but the majority of times they are teaching us false truths and imbedding perspectives that are anti-biblical.

For instance, “by age 18, a U.S. youth will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence” (American Psychiatric Association). The Bible tells us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), and that we should not be strikers (1 Timothy 3:3).

Joshua Becker, a blogger on “Becoming Minimalist”, writes in his article “10 Reasons to Watch Less Television,” “Too much television results in disillusionment about what to expect from the world around us. This can most commonly be seen in people’s expectations of love, romance, and sexuality.”

The media we take in shapes us. It distorts our view of reality. As a believer, it pushes you to desire sin over righteousness. For instance, have you ever watched a TV show and wanted the main character to leave their spouse for someone else? They make the marriage relationship look awful and the affair look good, true and beautiful.

Movies, TV, music, Facebook and the list goes on, continues to feed an ever increasing appetite that leads to further emptiness. It will never satisfy, but will make you crave it more and more. The problem is that we are blinded to our own bad habits and don’t notice the affect it has on our lives and our faith. Yes, over indulgence in media will impact your faith. Your desire for God’s Word will decrease along with your passion for lost souls, your energy for worship, your zeal for righteousness and desire for church.

Have you ever noticed a lack of desire for the Word of God?

The Antidote: God’s Word

What is God’s Word? I mean, what do you really believe God’s Word is?

Does it provoke awe, admiration and desire, like the man who kissed the Bible? Or is a dull, boring and confusing book?

If you are a Christian, then you should desire God’s Word. And if you don’t, you are distracted from it by the world. This is why it is so important that we develop a habit of being in God’s Word, it is the antidote to the world’s message.

So what is the Word of God? Dr. Jason K Allen writes, “It indeed is the Word of God. We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God: it’s truthful, it’s trustworthy, it’s accurate. We embrace a verbal plenary understanding of inspiration. That means the words themselves were inspired. All the words are inspired. That’s really the theological perception that we bring to the table which heightens the sense of urgency around Bible intake.”

When we believe the Bible is the very words given to us by God, then it should invoke a sense of “urgency around Bible intake!”

Think of a letter you received from someone you love. How do you respond to it? Do you ignore it? Put in a box with the intention of getting to it one of these days? Do you read it right away? Maybe read it several times? Do you cherish it?

Yes, a love letter invokes a response of joy, desire and fascination. There is an urgency to it because you know who it was sent from. The relationship drives the desire.

God has given you His Word so you can know Him, know where you come from, where you are going, what the meaning and purpose of life is, what your mission is, how you can find forgiveness, redemption, hope, love, strength, peace and so much more. Do you believe this?

The world’s messages you are receiving daily at exponential rates are lying to you. Telling you that you are worthless, that you will never measure up, that nobody will want you, that you can’t trust God’s way, that cutting corners morally is a good thing, that good is bad and bad is good, etc. Taking in the Bible daily is the only way to consistently battle the lies of the enemy.

Without a regular diet of God’s Word, you will begin to change your views on moral issues. You will begin accepting things as good that you cannot imagine. You will begin to compromise and make excuses for your own desires for sins. Then you will not want to confront other people’s sins because of your own and the cycle will continue.

It’s not enough to know the Bible is the antidote, you have to consume it!

Delighting In God’s Word

The Psalmist writes, “taste and see that the Lord is good!” It is no accident that God regularly refers to His Word as food for our souls. I like good food, don’t you? What is your favorite food? What gets you really excited to eat?

Chipotle gets me really excited! I love going there. Or a good Mongolian BBQ! Yep, food can get us excited. Does God’s Word get you excited?

There are parts of God’s Word I love! I get really excited reading portions of Scriptures. King David writes about how He “delights in the Law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night!” How can you delight in the “Law”? When you recognize that it comes from the Lord and it teaches you how to relate to Him, it becomes exciting.

It starts with spending time it God’s Word. If you don’t have a regular diet of feasting on God’s Word, start today. Start small and build. I like to remind people that there are several approaches to God’s Word, the most important one is the one you do.

Approaches To Reading Your Bible

1.     Read to Read – We’ve already talked about the influence of the world’s message. You live in the world and you won’t avoid all the lies even if you stop watching TV. So you need to fill your mind with God’s Word. It is good to move through large portions of the Scriptures regularly. There are plans for reading through the Bible in a Year, reading through the New Testament, reading the Bible in 90 days, etc.

a.      Some I’d recommend is reading through the Gospels in a month, it takes 3 chapters a day to do it.

b.     Read a chapter of Proverbs every day during the months that have 31 days in them.

c.     Read through a whole book of the Bible in one sitting.

2.     Quiet Time – this is a daily devotional time intended to meditatively pray through and think through a passage of Scripture to connect with God. Basically, this is building your relationship time with God. What are you learning about God? His love for you? How you can relate to Him? There are many helps out there, but the Word of Life Quiet Time diary is an excellent resource.

3.     Memorization – Scripture memory is the fastest way to transform your mind. One of my teachers once said, “if you are not memorizing Scripture, then you are struggling with your thought life.” King David says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you!” There are several systems and aids out there. I like the Verses app.

4.     Personal Bible Study – This is an intentional time to dig deeper into the Scripture. It may not be the daily routine, but it is the exercise of learning to “handle the word properly.” It may be topical: “what does the Bible say about love?” It may be a book study: “I’m going to spend the year studying 1 Peter.” Or it might be a character study: “who exactly is Joseph and what can I learn from his life?” The idea is that you are digging deeper, slowly working through it, using commentaries, Bible dictionaries and study Bibles.

5.     Corporate Bible Study – this is regular Bible studies you do with other people. Sunday School, Youth Group, FCA, Young Life, are examples of some. Having friends over or accountability partners to study the Bible together. Here is where you get to interact with the Bible and others and see how God uses them to teach you His Word, and uses you to help others understand His Word.

6.     Hearing the Word of God – a regular intake of listening to God’s Word being read and explained in important. Learning to listen to the sermon each week, take notes and hear how God’s Word is explained is invaluable. Using apps like YouVersion to listen to the Scriptures being read. Reading the Bible out loud so you can hear it. The Bible was intended to be heard.

These six areas are important for all of us. Don’t feel like you have to do each one every day. I’d recommend starting with the Quiet Time and working in one day of memorization. Sometimes we need to change up our approach to keep things fresh, that’s ok. Rotate through these regularly. See how you can combine some together.

The goal isn’t to be burdened by the Bible, but to see the joy in spending time with God. Think about this: the Creator of the Universe, the one who hung the stars in their place, who hand crafted the Grand Canyon and painted the sunsets, He wants to spend time with you every day. He gave you a book, actually a library of books, for you to hear His words. Will you spend time with Him today?

I pray that you see the Bible as beautiful. That you pick it up and kiss it.

The Light Overcomes Darkness!

Have you ever been haunted by memories of past experiences? Most of us are. We may not like to acknowledge them or bring them up, but they are there. Some that regularly plague me are from experiences that I’ve had in my travels around the world.

Standing at the door of a Hindu temple in Trinidad and feeling a palpable sense darkness surround me, causing me to retreat rather then walk in. Walking the narrow “streets” of Marthari slums in Nairobi, Kenya and seeing the extreme poverty. Huddling in a slum house, kneeling to pray at the side of a bed with a young lady on her death bed as AIDS rapidly was claiming her life, feeling her whole body surge at the slightest human touch as if she had never experienced the gentlest expression of human dignity. The brokenness in the voice of the orphans I’ve encountered in Kenya, Brazil and Haiti.

Perhaps no place I’ve experienced felt as dark and close to Hell as it was last year in Haiti when our team arrived at Jonatas “orphanage.” I wrote about it last year and how it devastated our group to learn that these poor children were taken from their families to be a scam for three wicked men.

Despite the horrible conditions, the lack of food, and the filth, the children were beautiful and resilient. They loved us as we loved them. We picked them up, hugged them, played with them, colored with them and had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with them. Only after departing did we hear about the true nature of that horrible place. To read more about it click here.

When you encounter such depravity and poverty as this, it is overwhelming how helpless you feel. The desire is to take all the children with you, but there is no way. This was only one of thousands of “orphanages” like this around the world. It is easy to be discouraged by the depths of the problem and the feelings of inadequacy. We feel helpless and sometimes hopeless.

But we should not feel hopeless or helpless. We have the God of the Universe to fight for us. He calls us to pray. To pray for the orphans and the less fortunate. Prayer is not to be looked at as the last thing we can do. No! It is the most powerful weapon we have against the forces of the enemy.

Today I had the privilege of reading my friend’s blog post. She shared with the world that the Haitian Children’s Service went in and shut down Jonatas’ “orphanage” and returned the children to their families! God has answered our prayers! God has proven Himself victorious and has rescued these children from this dark place!

We can rejoice in answered prayers! We can rejoice that these children can sleep in their own homes with their own parents. We can celebrate that they are not being taken advantage of any more.

The memory of that place will still haunt my spirit, but the knowledge of God’s redemption provides the foundation of hope that overcomes! Let’s continue to pray for the children around the world who are being trafficked and taken advantage of by evil people. God is on the move and He hears our prayers!