“Receive , I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.”–Job 22:22

Concealed carry has become popular in the last few years, and for good reason– we live in a dangerous world! But there is something even more important than that. The Psalmist spoke of it when he said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”( Ps.119:11). When I became a Christian just about every pastor stressed the need for Bible memorization. Today we never hear anything about it, and we are paying a high price for our neglect!

The daily devotional, “Turning Point” said,”The human brain is arguably the climax of God’s creation, the most incredible invention in His universe. It’s a fabulous, living super-computer with unfathomable circuitry and unimaginable complexity, a collection of billions of neurons, each as complex as a small computer. They’re all interconnected, and one scientist said that the number of connections within one human brain rivals the number of stars and galaxies in the entire universe.

With a brain like that, you can memorize Scripture. In fact, Scripture memory is the most therapeutic thing you can do with and for your brain. In the days before the printing press, many people didn’t have access to their own copies of the Bible; so they memorized vast portions of God’s Word. How tragic that now, with all our modern versions and translations, we’re memorizing it less and less.

It’s important to memorize Scripture in order to stand strong during life’s difficult circumstances. When you have Bible verses inscribed in your mind, you’re carrying a concealed weapon. You’re wielding the sword of the Spirit. Find a passage today and begin laying up His words in your heart.”

Dallas Willard wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization.” Think about it!

Jesus is the key to everything. He is the only source of salvation and satisfaction. He delivers us from sin’s condemnation and control. Focusing fully on Him is  the only way for the saints to be successful (Heb. 12:1-3). Milton Vincent explained it well when he wrote these words:

“On the most basic levels, I desire fullness, and fleshly lusts seduce me by attaching themselves to this basic desire. They exploit the empty spaces in me, and they promise that fulness will be mine if I give in to their demands. When my soul sits empty and is aching for something to fill it, such deceptive promises are extremely difficult to resist.

Consequently, the key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel. Indeed, it is in the gospel that I experience a God who glorifies Himself by filling me with His fullness. This is the God of the gospel, a God who is satisfied with nothing less than my experience of fullness in Him!

Indeed, as I perpetually feast on Christ and all His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free. Eyes do not rove, nor do fleshly lusts rule, when the heart is fat with the love of Jesus!”

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work – John 4:34

Success eludes most people because they don’t know what it is. Simply put, to discover and do the will of God is success. He who finds and finishes God’s will has not failed! Here we see Jesus, as always, as our perfect example. An article from the Baptist Bible Hour said it well.

“What drives you? What motivates you? What sustains you? Jesus revealed to his disciples, when they could not understand his passing up a lunch break, that his driving motivation was the will of his heavenly Father.

My meat, my food, my sustenance comes from doing the will of God and finishing the work of God, Jesus says. Notice that it does not suffice Jesus’ appetite to simply know the will of God or to study His works. Jesus finds his fulfillment in actively engaging in the work of God and persevering until it is completed.

Too often we think of Christianity as a set of beliefs only. But following Christ invariably means hungering to know the will of God and being satisfied only when we are engaged in it. Nothing else can substitute for active obedience.

And Jesus takes it a step further than obedience; his mission statement includes completion of the work that God has for him to do. Jesus is not just trying to salve his conscience or make a show of obedience; his satisfaction only comes in the achievement of God’s purpose for him here.

What about you? Is your meat to do your Master’s will? Are you actively seeking to practice the Christian faith, in public and in private? Are you striving to finish the great purpose for which God has placed you here?”

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”–John 14:27

“A World of Happiness in an Ocean of Peace.” That slogan decorated hotels and restaurants across Hawaii in early December of 1941. The island of Oahu was considered remote, safe, and peaceful, where one could live close to the flowers and the warm surf of the Pacific. Most Honolulu residents didn’t lock their doors, and some homeowners hadn’t had keys for years … a world of happiness in an ocean of peace.

… until December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The world’s peace can disappear very quickly. The world gives peace, but takes it away. Jesus gives us a legacy of lasting peace. Matthew Henry said about John 14:27: “When Christ was about to leave the world He made His will. His soul He committed to His Father; His body He bequeathed to Joseph to be decently interred; His clothes fell to the soldiers; His mother He left to the care of John: but what should He leave to His poor disciples that had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them that which was infinitely better — His peace.”

The peace of the believer is deep, calm, lasting, everlasting. The world, with all its blandishments, cannot give it. The world, with all its fluctuations … cannot take it away.
From an anonymous 1854 devotional book, The Words of Jesus (Turning Point)

How is it that we can have such a glorious Savior and be so sour? Seeing that He is Altogether Lovely how is it that we fail to focus on Him? Considering that His mercies are new every morning and that He never changes how can we be bored with life or fearful of death. He is certainly never His fault! This is what John Flavel was telling us many years ago when he wrote:

“A man would think that such a Christ should never be one whole hour together out of his people’s thoughts and affections: that wherever they go, they should carry him up and down with them, in their thoughts, desires, and delights, that they should lie down with Christ in their thoughts at night, and when they awake be still with him, that their very dreams in the night should be sweet visions of Christ, and all their words savour of Christ.

Though all other things do, yet Christ never can grow stale. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. When the saints shall have fed their eyes upon him in heaven, thousands and millions of years, he shall be as fresh and beautiful as at the beginning.

The longer you know Christ, and the nearer you come to him, still the more do you see of his glory. Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight. He is as it were a new Christ every day — and yet the same Christ still.”