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Pain with Purpose “I never knew the meaning of God’s word, until I came into affliction.  I have found it one of my best schoolmasters.” — Martin Luther Introduction:  As a child we learned a simple prayer to be prayed at the table:  “God is great.  God is good, and we thank Him for our food.”  In all of my years of theological studies, whether in the Pastor’s study or in the seminary library, I have not discovered new truth that improves...

It Is All about Him “The sacred page is not meant to be the end, but only the means to the end, which is knowing God Himself.” — A. W. Tozer INTRODUCTION:  Sin is the failure to love and desire God above all things.  It is possible to study the Bible and sin in doing so.  It is possible to seek the gifts that God offers to us and sin in doing so.  The Pharisees loved to study the Bible but still...

Hope in the Midst of Problems  Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in Your law. Psalm 119:18 “A Bible which is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” — C.  H.  Spurgeon “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  Romans 15:4 INTRODUCTION:   Someone once remarked, “Once we know that life is hard it is not so hard any more.”  They...

Love and God’s Word Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in Your law.  Psalm 119:18 “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.”  Martin Luther INTRODUCTION:  Bruce Waltke is a world class theologian and Old Testament scholar.  He has written a book in which he tells of how early in his life he read the Bible for its academic merit, but never got anything...

Prayer, Perseverance and Pleasure  Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful things in Your law.  Psalm 119:18 “I never knew all there was in the Bible until I spent those years in jail.  I was constantly finding new treasures.” — John Bunyan INTRODUCTION:  What emperors and atheists have tried to do and failed, our own complacency may have succeeded in doing — stopped us from knowing the treasures found in God’s mind.  We are simply too comfortable in the “good life”...

Pathway To Freedom INTRODUCTION:  I think the reason the Psalms are such a favorite to believers of all stripes is found in the humility and honesty of the psalmist.  He bears all.  He reveals his struggles and his strengths.  He declares his boldness and then cries for help.  He is weary and in sorrow and then he is running in joyous freedom.  In other words he is just like us.  No super human here.  Just a man after God’s heart who...

Open Our Eyes, Lord “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  C. S. Lewis Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law (Ps 119:18). BACKGROUND:  When the light of the Gospel penetrates our hearts, it sheds light on everything else.  Lewis discovered what the psalmist did.  The light of God’s Word has dispelled the darkness.  He delights in the decrees...