The Word of God

How does lasting change happen in our lives? We would love an “instant fix.” We would love God to snap His fingers and make us permanently free from temptation and sin. But God has a method that He has chosen whereby He works the life of His Son in us. That method is called process.

Are you looking for a powerful message to inspire the young men in your life? The Matters of Life and Death series is an enlightening journey through the truths of God's Word, tailored especially for men, and especially for young men seeking to deepen their relationship with the Lord.

When we keep—that is, observe, remember, and apply—the commands of Jesus Christ, Scripture explains that we not only demonstrate our sincere love for the Lord, but we also receive many rewards. Praise God that He does not just give us these commands, but He also does them in and through us!

The words of Scripture are living words. Meditation allows God’s Word to live in your heart and enables Scripture to become a personal conversation between you and the Lord. Jesus promised, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you [live in you], ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:7–8).

Whenever God speaks of success in the Scripture, He relates it to the continuous activity of Scripture meditation. This continuous mental discipline of memorizing and meditating on Scripture is able to rebuild thought structures, refocus emotions, and redirect desires and goals.

When we understand the heart of the matter, the Sabbath Day is not a burden but a blessing! We can willingly lay aside our own ways when we are seeking God’s ways. As we learn to take pleasure in fellowship with God, we can more easily lay aside the lesser pleasures of this world. Filled with God’s Word, our own words no longer seem as important.

Our goal as Christians should not be to become “better people,” but to become something entirely new—to let Christ live His life inside us!

Alfred had become king at a desperate time. Parts of the country, such as East Anglia & Kent, had fallen to the Vikings. London was in the hands of the same cruel invaders. Another Viking army was marching from Reading. It seemed that the two invading forces advancing on both sides of Alfred would squeeze Wessex into submission and place the entire kingdom under tribute.

We invite you to take some time today to read through the list below of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3–17) and their corresponding New Testament applications.

Wisdom is seeing the hand of God in every experience of life. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

The Lord offers a great number of rich rewards for those who meditate on His Word, including success, wisdom, faith, fellowship, and victory over sin.

Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). What are these commandments, and what does it mean to “keep” them? We cannot keep (observe, remember, and apply) Christ’s commands without first knowing what they are.

Regardless of your feelings to the contrary, the Bible says that believers are dead to sin. God wants us to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, which means “to count it to be so.” If a seductive woman walked past a dead man, he would not even blink an eye. God wants us to have a comparable response to the power and appeal of sin—to react to temptation as a dead person would react to temptation.