“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11

Do you believe that the Bible is God’s Word? I do. I believe the Bible is exactly what God wants us to know about many subjects including about God Himself, about life and the purpose of life, about death and eternity, about the church and our purpose. The Bible is the one thing that God has given us to make us prepared to do all good works (II Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible is more than just a book, it is God’s message to His creation! So we should read it and more than just read the Bible, we should memorize verses and passages, or “hide God’s Word in our hearts”. Why should we memorize the Bible? The answer the psalmist gave us is very clear.

To gain victory over temptation.

“That I might not sin against God.” This was the reason the psalmist memorized Bible verses. We can memorize Bible verses to help give us the victory over sin. As temptation comes, we can answer it with Bible verses. The best example, and most obvious, is Jesus in Matthew 4. Jesus was tempted by Satan and answered each temptation with Scripture. As we are tempted to sin, we would do well to use God’s Word to combat such temptation. But we may not have a Bible handy, or we may not remember exactly where to look in the Bible for what we need! Today things are much easier. We can do a quick search on Google to find articles that will give specific verses of the Bible about specific topics, but there are times when even that is not convenient. The best solution is to put God’s Word where it will always be ready to help us, in our hearts!

If you have specific sins that tempt you (we all do), memorize verses about that specific topic. You will be amazed how God helps you to recall those verses!

The answer the psalmist gave us as to why he memorized Bible verses is very clear, but there are also other reasons to memorize God’s Word. We will address some of these reasons in upcoming posts.

Last week I posted about “the dreaded plateau”. In that post I mentioned the importance to read books. I am addressing this thought in more detail for this post. It is extremely important that we continue to read books on a regular basis. In 2003, The Jenkins Group conducted an interesting survey about reading. Here are a few of the results from this survey…

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

Obviously things have probably changed since 2003, but I don’t know that they have changed for the better. This study shows us that many people just don’t read. My mentor has said many times that they way we grow and change is by the people we meet and the books we read. As Christians we should continually grow and reading books will help us. Here some things to think about…

• Read the Bible: This should really go without saying but if didn’t mention this, I would feel like I am ignoring the most important of all principles about reading. The Bible is God’s Word, if we are God’s children we should read His Word! The Bible is the way God communicates with us today. Out of all things, the Bible teaches us that it is what makes us mature (perfect), entirely prepared to do good works for Jesus (2 Timothy 3:16-17). There is no way to read the Bible too much! Study it, read it daily, and allow God to use His Word to work in you!
• Read books that will help: There are all kinds of books, so it can be daunting trying to choose a good book. Look for books that deal with topics that you want to grow in. Look for specific topics, like a study of a book in the Bible, or how to handle finances, or how to be a better spouse, raising children, or principles for walking closer to Jesus.
• Who is the author?: Before reading, find out about the author. Does he proclaim to be a Christian? What denomination does he affiliate with? Not every book you read needs to be authored by a Christian, but if I am going to read a book about the missionary life of the Apostle Paul and the author doesn’t believe that Bible is the Word of God, that will definitely determine how I accept the author’s thoughts (if I were to even read a book like that). It is pretty easy to find out about the author of most books.

There are many other principles to use in selecting a good book. The important thing is to know what you are reading, who you are reading after, and to keep reading!

Furlough and Faith

We have been on a short furlough for one month now and Faith Baptist Church is continuing on in our absence. We have had people visit the church and come back at other services. David, the Argentine man who is preaching while we are on this furlough, is doing a wonderful job! Mother’s Day was in October and the church had a special day! It was great seeing the pictures of all that went on. One of the men of the church was able to give the offering devotion last month as well. This is another step for this young man as he continues to follow God’s plan for his life.

We will be in many different churches this month in Ohio, Florida, and Georgia. We are hoping to raise additional funds for church planting during these next two months. Thank you for praying for us.

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, Ivy, and Isla Henry

• Pray for David as he preaches at the church each service.

• Pray as this infant church continues to grow while we are on furlough.

• Pray for those attending to continue to be faithful and grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus. 

• Pray for more souls to be saved.

A plateau in life is not somewhere anyone wants to be. A “plateau” is a relatively level high ground. A plateau in life is exactly that, a position in which you are no longer growing, increasing, or developing and where things start to seem flat and stagnant. I read a book about the plateau in learning a language. As you start to learn the language, you start growing immediately and drastically, but at some point it seems that you have hit a “ceiling” in your learning (or a “plateau”) and you seem to take a detour from the road to fluency. There are plateaus in life too, it is just a part of it. So how do we push through the plateaus? I can think of a few thing I have learned and am learning to help us through these hard times.

• Don’t quit. Sometimes when we think we are in a “plateau”, we are just in times where things are going slower. We shouldn’t give up, on the contrary we should push harder, trusting Jesus as we continue on.
• Read books. I am in the middle of a book now and it is challenging me. It is addressing things that are lacking in my life, things I often don’t give attention. Now that I am reading about it, I am confronted with a topic in which I must make changes. This type of challenge helps me to grow. Read books often that will help you grow.
• Spend time with strong Christians. The past few days I have had the opportunity to spend time with a friend of mine. My fiend is an influence in my life (as all friends, good and bad, are). But this friend is a positive influence. He is always growing, always serving others, always ready to help, always reading books to grow (see above about reading books), always challenging me to live more for Jesus. He is humble and builds others up instead of trying to build himself up by putting others down. The truth is this type of influence is a needed influence. We all need friends like this to help us push ahead. The man who doesn’t have Christian friends who are growing and challenging others to grow is a man that is on the verge of a large, never-ending plateau.

There are many other things that can be said about this topic. I think these three things will help us to push on through and break out of the plateau.