Sunday, November 16, 2014

Celebrate the Bible, Week 3

Join me this November to celebrate the Bible. I would encourage you to read and meditate and study Psalm 119 with me. I would encourage you to pick up your Bible and read something. Even if you choose not to dedicate the month to the longest Psalm in the Bible!!! My goal is not to have you fall in love with Psalm 119. My goal is to have you fall in love with God's Word. I want you to "taste and see that the LORD is good!" I want you to join with me in saying, "Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!"

To clarify, you do NOT have to join me in reading Psalm 119 to participate in Celebrate the Bible. Read the Bible. Read what you want, where you want. Just read something and share with everyone where you're reading and what you're learning!!! 

Week Three, November 16-22

November 16, read and meditate on Psalm 119:97-104
November 17, read and meditate on Psalm 119:105-112
November 18, read and meditate on Psalm 119:113-120
November 19, read and meditate on Psalm 119:121-128
November 20, read and meditate on Psalm 119:129-136
November 21, read and meditate on Psalm 119:137-144
November 22, read Psalm 119 and/OR listen to Alistair Begg's sermon How To Know Your Bible and/OR read John MacArthur's post How To Study Your Bible

Be sure to check out quotes and resources from week one and week two.

Question(s): Do you have a favorite Bible translation? What are your top five Bible translations? Do you have one and only one translation that you read from? Or do you like to read different translations? When was the last time you tried a new translation? What do you look for in a translation?

Highlights from Psalm 119:97-144 in the MEV translation:

  • Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97
  • How sweet are Your words to the taste of my mouth! Sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103
  • Through Your precepts I receive understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:104
  • Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
  • Your testimonies are my inheritance forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. Psalm 119:111
  • You are my hiding place and my shield, I hope in Your word. Psalm 119:114
  • My eyes long for Your deliverance and for the promise of Your righteousness. Psalm 119:123
  • I am Your servant; grant me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies. Psalm 119:125
  • Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. Psalm 119:129
  • The giving of Your words gives light; it grants understanding to the simple. Psalm 119:130
  • Look upon me, and be merciful to me, as You are for those who love Your name. Psalm 119:132
  • Order my steps according to Your word and let not iniquity have dominion over me. Psalm 119:133
  • Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because people do not keep Your law. Psalm 119:136
  • You have set Your testimonies in righteousness and faithfulness. Psalm 119:138
  • Your word is pure and true; therefore Your servant loves it. Psalm 119:140
  • Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is true. Psalm 119:142
  • The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; grant me understanding, and I shall live. Psalm 119:144

Highlights from the rest of the Bible in the ESV translation:
  • The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17
  • The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. Proverbs 18:10
  • Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8
  • The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Psalm 138:8
  • I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. Psalm 130:5
  • And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:26-27
Resources:
Video Resources:
Quotes:
Don't fail to read the Bible simply because you have difficulty relating to the translation. Find a version you do understand. I'm often asked which version of the Bible I think is the best, and I always respond, "The one you read." It doesn't matter if you are convinced your version is the most accurate there is. If you don't read it, you won't connect with God. Hurdle the language barrier by choosing a Bible that is comfortable for you. Then read it for all it's worth. (Woodrow Kroll, How To Find God in the Bible, 61)
God’s Word is both our terror and our hope; it both kills and makes alive. If we engage it in faith, humility and obedience, it gives life, cleanses, feeds and defends. If we close it in unbelief or ignore it or resist it, it will accuse us before the God who gave it. It is the living Word of God, coming like a fierce man of war with great power, and you and I dare not resist it, and we dare not argue it down. ~ A.W. Tozer
If we believe that the Bible is God’s Word to us, then it needs to have top priority in all our activities. Everything we do must be evaluated according to “thus saith the Lord.” ~ A.W. Tozer

There never was a man or woman truly converted, from one end of the world to the other--who did not love the Word of God. Just as a child born into the world desires naturally the milk provided for its nourishment, so does a "born again" soul desire the sincere milk of the Word. This is a common mark of all the children of God--they "delight in the law of the Lord." (Psalm 1:2.) Show me a person who despises Bible reading, or thinks little of Bible preaching, and I hold it to be a certain fact that he is not yet "born again." He may be zealous about forms and ceremonies. He may be diligent in attending sacraments and daily services. But if these things are more precious to him than the Bible, I cannot think he is a converted man.
Tell me what the Bible is to a man--and I will generally tell you what he is. This is the spiritual pulse--if we would know the state of the heart. I have no notion of the Spirit dwelling in a man and not giving clear evidence of His presence. And I believe it to be a signal evidence of the Spirit's presence--when the Word is really precious to a man's soul. ~ J.C. Ryle
How glorious and soul-satisfying is the description it gives us of God's plan of salvation, and the way by which our sins can be forgiven! The coming into the world of Jesus Christ, the God-man, to save sinners--the atonement He has made by suffering in our stead, the just for the unjust--the complete payment He has made for our sins by His own blood--the justification of every sinner who simply believes on Jesus--the readiness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to receive, pardon, and save to the uttermost--how unspeakably grand and cheering are all these truths! We would know nothing of them without the Bible.
How comforting is the account it gives us of the great Mediator of the New Testament--the God-man Christ Jesus! Four times over His picture is graciously drawn before our eyes. Four separate witnesses tell us of . . .
  • His miracles and His ministry,
  • His sayings and His doings,
  • His life and His death,
  • His power and His love,
  • His kindness and His patience,
  • His ways, His words, His works, His thoughts, His heart!
Blessed be God, there is one thing in the Bible which the most prejudiced reader can hardly fail to understand--and that is the character of Jesus Christ! ~ J.C. Ryle

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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