Done

Finished
This morning our Tuesday morning Bible study finished our study of Psalm 119.  Well, the group did.  I missed a couple of weeks so I have that section to do.  I also was caught short this week – it took much longer to live than I had planned, so I was not able to put the time into the last four octets I would have preferred.  So I am not finished…

Frankly, we went through the Psalm faster than I had planned.  So, I will stay a bit longer in David’s opus on God’s word.  I will probably go back to an octet a week.

Next?
At the end of our time together we discussed for a short time what we wanted to study next.  It was short because I had to get on the road.  Shutting down my iPad would end the conference call.  Just before I did that, one of the guys suggested Romans…

In the last year, before he joined we studied 4 – 8.  Last year I studied Romans with the Moroccan pastor I meet with each week.  I know the older guys in the group have studied Romans several times, as I have.

Not Done…
But none of us is done.  We may have studied Psalm 119, we may have studied Romans 10 times.  We may have several outlines in our files.  We are not done with either passage.  Certainly, neither passage is done with us.

Living and Active
It is the nature of the Word of God that it cannot be mastered.  It can be studied.  I may be able to outline the content of a portion of the book.  I may be able to relate portions together.  There is still more to the Book than I will ever see.

Why?

I think David captures it best in Psalm 119.  Throughout the psalm he asks equally to be revived by God and His Word.  This is significant because David attributes the ability to revive both to God and also separately to His Word.  The import of that is that God’s Word is of God.  That is it reflects the God’s nature and character.

Peter got this.  He says in 2 Peter 1:3 – 4, that we become partakers of God’s nature through His Word.  Think on that.  Engaging in the Word is engaging in the nature and character of God.

How then could we be so arrogant to think we could master it?  We will never be done.  We may finish a study, but we are never done.

Consider it Joy or Poo

My Context
I live in a place where there is a lot of teaching that trusting Christ is the means to prosperity.  People are told if they are struggling materially or with health, all they need is a little more faith or to say their prayer a little differently.  I won’t go into detail but if you have watched some of the many folks on TV you can fill in the blanks.

A Great Message
These past few days I have been with my dad.  Today we took him for his quarterly PET scan at MD Anderson.  Yesterday we went with him to church.  His new pastor spoke on Philippians 3.  He did a great job.  Philippians 3 is one of my favorite passages.  The pastor pointed out, correctly, that in Philippians 3:8 the word that is translated rubbish in the original is closer to feces, poo.

More and Better Poo?
Think about that for a minute.  All of the things that Paul had in the world he viewed as poo.  In the college ministry when guys were pulled back to the world we called that going back to dine at the commode.  Some of those who are sharing the prosperity message are essentially telling people that if they have more faith they will get more poo…  Now that is attractive.  The stuff that Paul chose to consider poo, we get more?  That was a choice by Paul by the way.

More and Better Joy
James talks about another choice.  In James 1:2, you know the passage, James tells us that when we encounter trials, and if you have been reading the new testament much you know that trial is a promised reality of the Christian life, we are to count it, consider it, reckon it all joy.

Paul considered the things of the world poo.  James considers trial joy.  That seems to be a different message than I hear from some people.

The Charge

Bottom Line
For the past few days I have been looking at the charges that Paul gave Timothy in 2 Timothy.  Yesterday I listed the passages in Psalm 119 that, it seems to me parallels the exhortation of Paul.  What is the bottom line?

The Thread
Through both 1 and 2 Timothy Paul is concerned with what he terms sound doctrine.  In the face of wicked , false teachers, Paul reminds Timothy to stick to the Word even when people are not interested in hearing the truth.

Throughout Psalm 119, David is dealing with wicked adversaries who are after his life.  In the face of constant resistance and affliction, his means of coping is to hold fast to the Word of God.

The Centrality of the Word
For both Paul and David the anchor, the compass, the map, the sustenance through resistance, schemes of evil, and the apostasy and desertion of co-laborers was to hold fast to the Word.  When individuals, organizations, or churches loose that grip compromise with the world is soon to follow.  When compromise with the world exists, salt has lost its savor and light is obscured.

The book of Jeremiah brutally documents the result of Judah’s release and abandonment of God’s Word.  Reading that book feels like reading a commentary on the Church.  As individuals, organizations, and churches, we need to reaffirm the centrality of the Word of God.  It will mean some radical changes in some quarters.  But we have to decie, are we going to follow the Word or the world.