"For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes." (Psalm 119:83)
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The Hebrew Word translated here, "statues," means, "something prescribed or owed." I have been living on this prescription for almost 49 years.
There are some people for whom the Word of God, the Bible, is a religious idea. They read it because it is the "spiritual" thing to do. They talk much about it because it gets a lot of people's attention as to their spirituality. I confess that before 49 years ago the Bible was somewhat peripheral in my life. Enter, June 12, 1970. It was then that, "....I...bec[a]me like a wineskin in smoke...."
You know my testimony. I could not pray, worship, give thanks, intercede, nothing. Stephen was gone; I was heartbroken, powerless to go on. Then one day I picked up, "The Words of God." I just read and read and read. I was not aware of any mental comprehension of the "Words." I don't remember any feelings of anything which so many describe in glowing "spiritual" cliches. I have never described it like this, but it was sort of like being hooked up to a breathing machine. Such machines are for people who can't breath on their own; that was I then; it is I now. I'm still "hooked up."
I read the Bible not because at some point in my "follow up" to conversion someone said I needed to be faithful in prayer and Bible reading. I do so because I cannot breathe on my own. Yes, there is much "revelation," much blessing from time to time. But there is also something comparable to someone who says to a patient, "Take your medicine. You won't get any better without it." Jesus, "The Word of God," and the, "God-Breathed," Words are the same. They are Jesus' Breath, and I say with the hymn writer, "I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee." One of our neighbors is on oxygen. He comes out on the porch attached to it. He drives with it. I imagine he even sleeps with it. I'm no different.
Here are some more Prescriptions from Psalm 119: "My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your Word....My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your Word....Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord-- Your salvation according to Your Word."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I so pray. Amen.
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Sarah is doing much better, thanks to your prayers.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
