Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Well, greetings this morning again in the King's
name, Jesus.
Now, if there was one of the presidents'
daughters here, we would all probably have a
bit of reverence on our hearts, especially in
our minds.
But if we're here as a child of
the King, we have a seat way beyond
that.
I'd like to say this morning that yesterday
I felt like I didn't fully get my
heart conveyed.
It's almost just still burning in me this
morning.
The need to pray and seek God's face.
When people pray, things happen.
Things change.
We change.
God moves.
I'm not going to start over.
Another subject today, another dear subject to me,
constructive Bible reading.
It's a very dear subject to me, just
like praying.
I put them right beside each other.
And when you see both of these functioning
the way they ought to in a Christian's
life, you will see a Christian that just
flourishes, that becomes very fruitful for God.
You will see that.
And my heart this morning is to have
us all fully persuaded by the time we're
done that this is so.
And open our eyes a bit to see
the possibilities of what we could do.
And hopefully motivate us to go ahead and
do it.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
Lord Jesus, this morning, we're just so thankful
that you've adopted us.
Thank you for the blood.
Thank you for salvation, that we can have
our conscience cleansed.
We can be forgiven from our sins, washed,
made clean, and regenerated into a new creature.
Thank you, Lord Jesus.
And Lord, as we look at that calling
of being regenerated children, sons and daughters of
yours, we pray, Lord, that this morning you
would speak to our hearts as to how
we can live lives that bring more glory
to you, that walk worthy of that calling
that you put on our lives.
Would you open our eyes this morning?
Enlighten the eyes of our understanding.
Give us eyesight, Lord.
Give us eyes that have God.
Cause us, Lord, to be able to get
some of that rich gold and buy it
from you.
Cleanse us and purge us.
Guide our lives.
Lord, I pray for the anointing of your
Spirit upon my heart this morning and for
the ability to communicate your truth to each
one of these dear hearts.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Constructive Bible reading, the very heart of it
is, inspiration for today that builds for the
future.
Something that inspires my heart today and builds
my life for the future.
Over the years, I've raised the question in
my heart and in my mind, why are
there some people that mature and grow and
prosper and others do not?
Here you have a young man that gets
born again.
He gets set free from sin and then
he just sits there.
And you have another young man that gets
born again, gets set free from sin, and
he takes off running like he's running a
race.
Why is there a difference?
Why is there a difference when God is
no respecter of person?
When God will respond to each one of
us exactly the same, somewhere there has to
be a difference.
Well, I'm going to say one of them
I shared with you yesterday, another one I
shared with you Monday, but I'd like to
share another one of those with you today
that make the difference as to whether we
take off running in our Christian life, running
the race that is set before us, or
whether we just sort of sit there and
bob along on the water.
And float through life.
There is a difference.
Some people seem to just be on a
plane.
Ah, they're doing alright.
They can survive on their own.
Others, it's like a pump handle where you've
got to take a hold of it and
constantly keep that handle on a-going, because
if you don't, well, it's going to die.
And no more water is going to come.
The Bible says that if we have Jesus
in our heart, there should be rivers of
living water coming out from us.
We shouldn't need to be pumped.
And, young person, we can always have an
overflow.
We can always have an overflow.
And one thing that young people often think,
they look at the preachers that get up
here and they think, they must be above
the clouds.
It's all just clear sailing and no trials.
I'd like to inform you that we're real
people.
And even if you get above the clouds,
I don't know if you've had airplane rides
or not, but I remember one coming back
from California flying to Detroit.
And we were above the clouds.
I had a glass of water in my
hand.
And all of a sudden I was trying
to do everything I can to keep this
glass of water from being all over me
because it was...
And it was not some little plane.
It was a 737 being ripped around.
Like, whew!
So, even if you're above the clouds, it's
not smooth sailing always.
What do we do?
I'm going to go on anyway.
To be honest with you, yesterday I had
one of those tests.
I preached anyway.
It didn't feel like it.
But I did it anyway.
It doesn't always come easy.
That's the kind of Christians we're looking for
that'll go on.
And I'd like to urge us today to
lay a standard in our lives while we
are young about Bible reading that will never
leave us all the days of our life.
That we can know assuredly all the days
of our life, this is what I need
to do to be close to God, to
hear from God.
This is what I need to do.
I read an account here a number of
months ago, and I can't remember all the
details, but it had to do with a
man, a missionary, that was close to God.
And this evangelist went to share with this
missionary, have this missionary share with him, and
this missionary sat there, and he just started
unfolding the book.
I mean, one beautiful truth after another just
rolled off of these pages.
And finally, the evangelist looked at him and
said, Sir, how do you come up with
all these beautiful truths?
Here's what he said.
I read my Bible on my knees before
God, begging God to show me His will.
And the beauties just come off of the
pages.
And my friend, God is no respecter of
person.
God is no respecter of person.
There is this problem that we have of
forgetting.
I can just about guarantee, if I would
go through this crowd and ask you to
tell me what you read in your Bible
this morning, there's quite a few of you
that would have a little bit of a
stumbling problem to tell me.
Let me comfort you just a little bit.
You're not weird.
So, how do we deal with that?
We absorb some of it.
Some of it passes on by and we
tend to not get it.
I'd like to give us an illustration of
what I'm talking about.
Constructive Bible reading.
I don't know if we have any masons
in here today or not, but if we
do, a mason knows that we don't lay
hundreds of brick in one shot.
We lay them one at a time.
In fact, they have a line and they
line them up real nice even with the
line.
They get spaced just right.
They get pressed into place and set real
good.
Every brick gets some attention paid to it.
And the next row comes and it goes
on top.
And a whole building gets laid up that
way one brick at a time.
And it can look like a very tedious,
slow job.
But they're constructing, aren't they?
They're building.
By the time they're done, there's a structure
there that has totally changed its appearance.
Now, I don't know if you can imagine
being a mason and laying four brick a
day.
Four brick a day.
I'm trying to keep it where it's very
reachable.
I think most of us could handle that
laying four brick a day.
But if we would take and lay four
brick a day for 15 years, we would
have a whole house, a good-sized house,
bricked.
And there'd be a structure there.
People could see very clearly what you have
done in the last 15 years.
Now, the first day or week might look
very depressing.
I'm not getting very far.
But that is exactly what we need to
do in our Bible reading.
We need to constructively lay four brick a
day.
And my friend, if you will lay four
brick a day for 15 years, there will
be structure to your life, I promise you.
I promise you there will be structure to
your life.
People will look at your life and know
that young person is going somewhere.
That Christian is an effective Christian for Jesus
Christ.
I guarantee you.
You know, it's right in reach.
It's right in reach if we can lay
four brick a day.
Constructive.
If I could, I'd hang it there.
I'll just move it a little bit.
Each one getting snuggled into place, attention paid
over it, and put in there to set
up right, to build my life for Jesus
Christ.
I'd like to read a few verses in
Hebrews 5.
Some very interesting verses.
Hebrews 5.
I know Brother Rick probably talked about this
a little bit.
No, he didn't yet.
He might talk about it tomorrow.
I hope I don't spoil his thing.
Hebrews 5.10 It says, Called of God
and High Priest after the order of Melchizedek,
of whom we have many things to say
and hard to be uttered, seeing you are
dull of hearing.
For when for the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need that one teach
you again which be the first principles of
the oracles of God and are become such
as have need of milk and not of
strong drink or strong meat.
Sorry.
Here they should have been teachers.
They should have been building their lives.
And the writer here is saying, you should
be mature, but you're still on milk.
You should be teaching and you're still being
fed.
Verse 13 For everyone that uses milk is
unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he
is of age.
But strong meat belongs to them that are
of full age, even those who by reason
of use, by reason of use, have their
senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The mature ones that can take the strong
meat are those that take their Bibles and
use them.
And they keep using them.
And it causes them to mature.
Their senses get exercised and they can think
according to God's will and God's word because
they are using and handling the word of
God.
Now again, I would like to say, to
be effective, we can just go through the
ritual of reading the Bible and it won't
do a lot for us.
But if we will surrender to Jesus Christ
as Lord of our lives and pray and
seek His face that He would make us
like Him, and then we open this book
and we read it and we study it
and we devour it and we devour it
and we love it with a passion and
we devour it some more.
My friends, it will not be some dead
book.
It will not be strong meat belonging to
them that are of full age.
Now, I would like to stir our hearts
a little bit.
Let's suppose that there is a young man
that has an interest in a young lady
and he is pursuing this.
He is attracted to her and he is
seeking God's will.
He works through the proper channels and it
finally comes down to everything is clear and
he is going to get to go to
her house and they are going to have
a meal together there with the family and
just very carefully stepping forward.
There are a few things he has noticed
about her.
She is rather skinny, a little bit frail
and yet he is attracted to her and
he is feeling this is God's will and
he gets there and the table is all
set.
The plates are all in place.
Everything is where it needs to be and
it is time for this meal and they
sit down and the table is spread with
everything on it and they are going to
have a meal together here.
Of course, hearts are pumping a little bit
and after a bit, mom comes and sets
a bottle on this young lady's plate and
she is still on milk and she is
still on the bottle.
Can you imagine what happens in that young
man's heart?
In fact, she is fairly big so she
needs some more and this is polished up
a bit.
We have to keep her alive and
there he sits and all afresh he is
wondering is this God's will?
The question is how many of us are
that for God?
And what kind of a sinking feeling does
Jesus have in his heart as he looks
at his bride?
Not even just on milk.
It's got to be chocolate milk.
I was tempted to get some strawberry or
maybe some vanilla milkshake or something like that
they have these days.
It's all spiced up with all kinds of
funny flavors.
It's not even sincere milk anymore.
But that's what the church is largely feasting
on.
And we are these skinny, frail Christians that
don't get anywhere.
Just surviving.
Can you imagine a mother being all excited
about this wonderful little baby she has?
She just loves this little darling.
How old is your baby?
Oh, five years.
Do you think she'd be excited?
We know she wouldn't be excited.
She'd be highly distressed.
And yet, in our Christian lives we pedal
right past that and don't think anything of
it.
It's important that we build a constructive life
for Jesus Christ.
Still on milk only.
We're to be sons of God.
We're to be kings and priests in the
Kingdom of God.
But still on milk.
Not hardly.
Alright, 1 Peter 1, verse 23.
I'd like to focus on milk a little
bit.
There is a right place for milk.
1 Peter 1, verse 23.
Then we're going to go into chapter 2
as well.
Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man as the flower of
grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away.
But the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the Word which by the
Gospel is preached unto you.
Chapter 2.
Wherefore, lay aside all malice and all guile
and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings.
And as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the Word.
Why?
That ye may grow thereby.
If so be that ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious.
One thing that you all know, a little
baby, you give them milk, if it does
what it's supposed to do, it will strengthen
their bodies.
In months, they have doubled their weight.
And they're growing.
And mom is happy.
She might say, oh, my baby's growing up
so quickly, but she really is happy about
it.
She wants to see that little child grow.
She likes to see those pudgy cheeks, that
double chin, those round ball the whole way
down to their toes.
They love to see all that.
They like to see them grow.
And my young person, that is what the
Word of God needs to do to us
when we're first born again.
We go open the Word and it should
be like sincere milk that just makes us
grow and grow and grow.
I'm sure you've heard the testimony.
My Bible's not the same anymore.
Well, amen.
What about a year later?
Is the passion still there?
Is the burning still in the soul?
Are we now a one-year-old that's
up and walking?
And before you're two, they're running.
In fact, sometimes at eight and nine months,
they're trying to climb.
We had one that walked at nine and
a half months.
It was almost scary.
But God wants us to grow and mature
and get up and go.
That's what He wants for our lives.
And if we can set that as a
standard for our life in our youth and
never quit, be up and going and growing
and running the race that He has set
before us, a question that often comes up,
how can I have more faith?
I lack faith.
Well, I'd like to also tell you if
you're saying that likely you have your focus
in the wrong place because we shouldn't be
looking at our faith, we should be looking
at Jesus.
But if you need more faith, the Bible
tells us, so then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God.
If we read how God moves and answers
the cries of His people and meets the
needs of His people in the Bible, how
can we but believe that He'll do that
for me?
And thus, our faith grows.
Well, secondly, I'd like to go on from
Milk 2 Timothy 2.15 which was read
last night.
But I'd like to look at that verse
today.
2 Timothy 2.15 Here a number of
years ago I had a message similar to
this.
And as I was studying, I decided I'm
going to find something out.
And I got on the phone and I
started calling people that I saw God using
and blessing their life and they were fruitful
for God.
And I would call them and I asked
them, can you share me, with me, what
you do in your Bible reading?
Eighty percent of them were searching and digging
and studying the Word very actively.
Ten percent said, I need more of that
in my life.
I didn't take the time but it would
have been good for me to go back
now.
That's probably eight or ten years ago.
And see how those lives came out and
who came out where.
Some of them I know right off are
still doing the same thing.
Still doing the same thing.
But I can't remember all the names right
off that I called.
Isn't that interesting though?
People that God uses are searching and digging
through the Word of God.
Devouring it.
Putting focus on it.
And a number of them even mentioned that
it's important to be praying with it.
I was focused on Bible reading, but that
was just a part of it to them.
And I agree with that very much.
Study.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
Don't study to be approved unto men, but
be studied to be approved unto God.
This word study means to use speed.
That is to make effort.
Be prompt.
Be earnest.
And that's in the Strongs.
If you look it up in the Vines,
it's under diligence.
Diligence.
To hasten to do a thing.
Exert oneself.
Endeavor and give diligence.
It's a pressing into it.
Study like a student that is determined, I'm
going to pass the test at the end
of the semester because there's a livelihood that
I need to perform.
There's a livelihood that I need to live
out.
There's something that I'm pressing for.
And my friend, we have something to press
for.
To serve our God and to walk in
His will for each one of our lives.
Oh, to be able to grow and mature
so that we can be what He wants
us to be.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
One thing that I found as I went
through my life was that it becomes important
to see Scripture in Bible context.
There's a lot of that happening today where
things are all out of context.
Pluck out a verse or even a half
of a verse and make it say what
I want it to say.
Well, what is that context saying?
Bible context as a whole and verse context
within a chapter.
An overview of the Bible.
Being able to see the whole picture becomes
important as we look at interpreting the Word
of God.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
A workman that needeth not to be ashamed
rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
And if we have an overview of God's
Word and God's will, we can rightly divide
it.
Now, you might not be doing that at
six months.
I don't think we should be distressed if
we're not.
Remember, lay four brick a day for 15
years.
And you'd be amazed at what will happen.
Now, I'd like to turn to the papers
that I handed out.
First of all, when I look at daily
inspiration, one that's very familiar is reading through
Proverbs in a month.
Some people even say, reading the proverb of
the day.
And I think that's a good thing.
It only takes one chapter a day to
do that.
Another one would be reading through Psalms in
a month, which has 150 chapters and it
takes five chapters in Psalms a day to
read through Psalms in a month.
I would encourage you to do it sometime.
It's pretty inspiring.
Why?
And yet, often that's about the level where
we want to quit.
You know, a chapter a day in Proverbs.
And maybe I'd take a month or so
where I'd read through Psalms and just inspire
my heart, you know.
I've got to fill up this inspiration for
today and go forward.
But remember, we're looking at constructive Bible reading
that feeds me today and builds for the
future.
I'd like to ask the question, how many
of you here today have read through the
New Testament the whole way?
Can I see your hands?
Good.
How many have read through the whole Bible
from beginning to end?
Can I see your hands?
Good.
There's something that happens when you read the
whole way through.
I remember the first time that I got
all the way through the Bible and it's
like the overview of the perspective of the
Word of God and will of God changed.
It wasn't the same anymore.
Now, in order to read through the whole
Bible, you can do that with three and
a quarter chapters a day and do it
in one year.
And that'll take you about 15 minutes.
Somewhere in that range on the average.
It would take about 15 minutes.
Now, does that sound hard?
I wonder how many of us can read
a newspaper for 15 minutes.
I mean, honestly.
I know the Bible is not a storybook,
but we read storybooks for hours.
If we would take 30 minutes a day,
we could read about six and a half
chapters a day and get through the Bible
twice in one year.
Twice in one year.
45 minutes?
We'll do it three times.
And an hour a day?
We'll get you through the Bible in three
months.
Three months.
Whoa!
That sounds like a feast!
It is!
And you're a young person.
I remember being young and reading 20 chapters
a day because I loved it.
That jumps you up to several months.
About two months, you're through the whole Bible.
It's a feast.
Something I haven't talked about yet is when
you're young, you have time.
You do not have responsibility.
And you have time.
You have energy.
And yes, I agree, we have to have
some rest.
But when you're young, you probably need less
than you will later on.
That's my testimony.
I've had to step back just a little
bit.
I wasn't going to, but I got plopped
down one day and I said, okay, I'll
slow down just a little bit.
You have time.
You don't have responsibility.
And I'd like to just persuade you right
now, if you think you don't have time
for this kind of thing in your youth,
you never will.
You never will.
It will never get easier.
That's why it's so important in our youth
to set up a standard for Bible reading
and prayer and lordship.
Alright, let's look at the New Testament.
Reading three chapters a day will get us
through the New Testament in three months.
Again, barely 15 minutes a day.
And we can get through the New Testament
in three months.
Now, is that hard?
Surely not.
And actually, all you have to do is
add a little over a chapter a day
to it and you can do it in
two months.
And I know you can do that because
I still do that.
In the midst of all the things going
on.
It's a matter of what we make a
priority in our lives.
And if you double that to about eight
and a half chapters a day, you can
read through the New Testament one time every
month.
And my friend, if you do that for
a year, the New Testament would take on
brand new readings.
I mean, light bulbs would be going off
everywhere.
Look at all these treasures.
And all of a sudden, you remember something
in this book over here and I'm reading
about it over here and you're connecting things
back and forth and the further you go,
the better it gets.
The better it gets.
Another one that I would recommend to you
is taking a book in the Bible and
reading that book through every day for a
whole month.
The first week, you might feel like I'm
having my nose to the grindstone.
Well, can I tell you, would you believe
me if I told you, that's good.
That's good.
We do that at work.
Why not do it for Jesus?
But then after that, all of a sudden,
the beginning of the book and the end
of the book and the middle of the
book all become a flowing connection of what
was on the heart of the writer.
And it just starts opening up and the
flowers start blooming.
And as you dig deeper, all of a
sudden one day this certain verse just comes
alive right off of the page and you
see way down into the gold mine.
But it takes effort.
It takes continual effort.
It takes constructive Bible reading that stays at
it and keeps laying those four brick a
day.
Now, I have it scheduled out here to
give you an idea.
A two year plan that you could go
through the whole New Testament that way.
There are some of them that are sort
of small and there's others that are sort
of big.
And I don't know what time you have
and when you have it.
One of the things I would recommend is
if you see a slot where you know
you have good time, do a bigger one.
Do a bigger one.
And you might want to shuffle some things
around a little bit.
This is suggestion and ideas.
But dig in there and make it go.
Another thing you can do while you're doing
that is take three by five cards, write
the chapter on top that says Matthew chapter
13 and just make an outline of what's
in the chapter.
Matthew chapter 13 has the sower, the tares,
the mustard seed, leaven, the tares again, which
is an answer to the first one, hidden
treasure, the goodly pearl, sorting good and bad
fish, and a prophet is without honor in
his own country.
And then memorize the card.
I don't know if you have it or
if it's happening to you or not.
The preacher gets up and gives the reference
and you know what it says.
I'm here to tell you, you can have
that.
You can have that.
Oh, I know what he's going to read.
I can just about imagine what he's going
to focus on in those verses.
Oh, you can have that.
Another thing you can do that might make
it easier if you color code it a
little bit.
This is Matthew 12, verses 1-50.
You can put the verse count on.
Give you a reference.
How many verses are on there?
And then just simply alternate or whatever you
choose.
I'm just giving ideas.
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
Withered hand healed.
Possessed delivered.
Blind and dumb healed.
A kingdom divided.
Cannot stand.
Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost.
We are judged by our words.
No sign but the sign of the prophet
Jonah given.
Unclean spirit returns with seven other spirits.
Who is Jesus' mother, brother, and sister?
Riches.
Instead of just thinking Matthew 12, dumb.
You can think Matthew 12.
Oh!
Down the line it goes.
And that can be for the whole Bible.
Another thing is meditating and chewing one piece
at a time.
Taking a verse or two and just letting
your mind focus on it.
And lay it before God.
Lord, what are you saying here?
There seems to be something here.
What are you saying, Lord?
And meditate on it.
Chew it.
You can do word studies.
I have a Strong's up here and I
have a Vine's up here.
I'm going to not go through it today
how to use them, but I'm going to
have them here for when afterwards if you
want to look at them and if you
want to learn how to use them, I
have them here today.
But looking up words and seeing definitions.
What did it mean?
What does it mean?
And digging a little deeper.
Another one I have here today that some
of you, many of you might have seen
is the Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary.
I have one of them here if you
want to look at them.
We're going to leave that for afterwards.
If you want to look at them, you're
welcome to do that.
But taking in-depth studies of the word
and looking deeper beyond the surface, beyond what
you read, beyond just the simple things that
are on top.
Go for the goal.
Go for the deeper things that are hidden
below the surface.
I'm not sure if this is right yet.
Anyway, let's go on.
Verse by verse, digging into the Word of
God, going to the next page, cross-referencing
and marking text and verses.
As you read through your Bible and you
find things that are special, mark the verses
or the phrases that are special to you.
Mark them.
I don't know if you've heard someone or
not you might have done it where they're
looking for something in the Bible and someone
hands them a Bible that is not their
own.
I can't find it in yours.
I need mine.
You've probably said that.
Some of you have, I'm sure.
Because you know where it is.
You know how you marked it.
I have something that I brought here today.
How many of you remember this?
I cheered when I saw this.
But I'll be honest with you, this does
not mean to me what it means to
somebody else.
Because it's not mine.
But as I look at this page, there
are some things that jump right off of
it immediately.
And I see a system.
Somebody had something in mind as they were
doing this and they marked it a specific
way and at a glance that page becomes
alive.
I have news for you.
Your Bible can look that way.
But I can't sit there and just read
through the Bible.
Oh, see, where was I going?
Read-aways.
I'm having a struggle this morning.
And keep plotting on.
You can't do that.
I'm reading the Bible.
I'm reading the Word of God.
In 1 John, or St. John, it says,
in the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was
God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
If we turn to Revelation 19.13, it
says His name was the Word of God.
And it's taking Jesus and connecting Him right
with the Word.
If Jesus was sitting there having devotion with
this young person, would we not also...
Oh, by the way, what were you saying?
No, we wouldn't.
We wouldn't.
We'd be paying attention.
What did He say?
How is He saying that?
I wonder what He meant.
We'd be taking special note.
And as we take special note of what
He's saying, we need to go ahead and
just start a system of marking things that
mean something to me.
I'd like to give you some suggestions on
some of that.
One of the first ones that people often
think about is highlighting markers.
This is one of the first ones I
use.
I don't use them anymore.
And I'll tell you why.
Bible pages are thin and they bleed through.
And it'll make sort of a mess out
of your Bible.
So, first thing I'd like to tell you
is I wouldn't recommend these.
But why did I need five of them?
Color coding.
Different things go in different places.
I would recommend something like this.
And again, there are different ones.
This is the Prismacolor, which is a softer
than the Crayola.
The Crayola is the same as your colors.
But they've got a pencil like this.
But it's a harder pencil.
This is a softer pencil.
And it marks very nice and friendly and
smoothly.
And with a thin page in the Bible,
it's a very good thing to use.
Just lightly coat it over.
And it will not bleed through and do
something funny in your Bible.
In fact, you can underline with it or
you can color over with it.
And I know one of the questions many
of you are asking is where do you
find such a thing?
Well, locally here, I got this just yesterday
from Ken's Joys.
And if you go on out the road,
Conestoga Bookstore has them too.
And that's 322 East from here.
Just on the other side of Hingletown is
where the first one is.
But there again, you can take different color
codes.
I'll give you one.
I use orange for judgment.
Why do you think orange would be judgment?
Fire.
automatically just lights up judgment.
Sin, I underline in orange.
Judgment gets highlighted in orange.
Redemption is red.
That's right.
Redemption is red because Jesus shed His blood.
And I'm not here to tell you what
to do, but it automatically means something to
me when I see a verse that is
highlighted in red.
Works of righteousness underline in red.
But really, this system has things in it
I don't have in mine.
And my heart would be that each one
of us would go get a system of
marking our Bibles that means something to me.
We can learn from each other, but make
it personal.
Make it personal.
Another one that I would give you for
markers, there's these fine point markers that Gospel
bookstores usually have that you can use for
underlining that do not have the bleeding through
effect.
And you don't have to press as hard
as a regular pen.
I don't know if you've noticed on a
thin page of a Bible, if you take
a pen and make a hard line, you
can see it very well on the other
side.
If you're not careful, you can cut right
through the page.
So, I would recommend these to you as
well.
And all of a sudden, our Bible can
just become more and more and more alive.
Memorize verses that are special, have special meanings.
Chapters with basic doctrines or that mean something
to you.
Or whole books.
Remember, you're young.
You have all kinds of time.
And you can come get me for saying
that if you want to afterwards, but I'm
telling you, you have time.
You have time.
Use it.
Apply it the best you can.
Another one is listening to tapes or CDs
of the Bible.
Eye perception and ear perception sometimes vary in
what you hear or see.
It has a little different effect on you.
And even as you're reading through the Bible,
if you're listening to it at the same
time, it itself can be a blessing.
Just for comprehension's sake.
You're struggling with pronunciations?
It'll help you with those pronunciations.
Or, you can listen to the Bible while
you're driving, while you're working, maybe while you're
going to sleep.
And you add to it.
Writing a devotional journal.
Many people do that.
And I encourage that.
Write down what God is doing in your
heart.
Sometimes just writing it down makes it stick
better.
Makes it stick better.
Could be just a few lines a day.
Changing off.
Flexibility.
It's important to not burn ourselves out just
doing the same thing on and on and
on.
I need some flexibility and I'll change off
at times what I'm doing.
And most people need that.
Some people need it more than others.
But allow yourself to change off.
And if you have a month that just
stretches to your end on time, adjust a
little bit the next month so you don't
burn out physically trying to get your task
done.
We are real people.
There have been times instead of having a
rigorous schedule that I just allowed myself to
flow a while and then go back in
the pool.
Not relaxing to the point where here we
go through life.
No, no, no, no.
That's dangerous.
Now, I'd like to talk a little bit
about aimless survival Bible reading.
And reading without a purpose or a goal.
I'm just reading because after all I need
to read the Bible.
Lord, feed me for today.
I need something.
And I know there's been times when it's
been important when someone prayed, God, show me
a verse and where my eyes fall, that's
where I read.
There might be some times we need to
do that.
But I would like to plead with you.
That is not a constructive Bible reading diet.
It's just sort of aimlessly hitting around.
And I'm not going to say God doesn't
speak to people that way.
But if that's what we always do, it's
not going to come out right.
We'll never get anywhere.
We'll just sort of flounder around.
Now, we were talking about reading through the
Bible in one year.
And if we read three and a quarter
chapters a day, we can read through the
whole Bible in one year.
Well, if we read one chapter a day,
we can read through the Bible in three
years and three months.
That sound exciting?
Sounds like the air is sort of coming
out of the tire, doesn't it?
And the worst part of it is to
consistently keep reading one chapter a day for
three years and three months, you're probably not
going to get it done.
We're just too human to be that relaxed
about digging in and seeking after God.
We're too human for that.
Remember, we're to study to show ourselves approved
unto God.
In John 7, verse 38, He that believeth
on Me, as the Scripture has said, out
of His belly shall flow rivers of living
water.
Rivers of it.
And I'm here to say you can have
that.
Colossians 3, verse 16 says, Let the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly.
Now, when we look at a rich man,
we think of what?
Come on.
Money.
Lots of money.
When we let the Word of Christ dwell
in us richly, we think of what?
Lots of Bible.
Right?
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you
richly.
Ephesians 6, verse 17, And take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God.
And if this book is alive and burning
in us and we have it comprehended in
our hearts, when a trial and temptation come,
it becomes the sword that defends our life.
So, our livelihood in Jesus depends on constructive
Bible reading.
It's a purifier, Ephesians 5, verse 26 and
27, that He might sanctify and cleanse it,
the church, with the washing of the water
by the Word.
That He might present it to Himself a
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be
holy and without blemish.
Oh, let the Word wash us.
And as we keep burying ourselves in it
from day to day, portions will keep opening
up that mean something to me and change
my life.
And we need that.
We need that.
1 John 2.
I'd like to read a few verses there.
1 John 2.
I'm going to start reading in verse 12.
I write unto you, little children, because your
sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye have
known Him that is from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because ye
have overcome the wicked one.
And I write unto you, little children, because
ye have known the Father.
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye
have known Him that is from the beginning.
And He keeps talking about knowing Him.
I have written unto you, young men, because
ye are strong and the Word of God
abideth in you.
And ye have overcome the wicked one.
And what we see here is a focus
on a relationship with the God of heaven
and the Word of God abiding in them.
And that's what we need.
We need that relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ, a vibrant relationship.
And then let the Word of Christ richly
dwell in us, and it will abide in
us and become that thing that caused us
to overcome the world.
I'd like to give you an account yet
of William Carey.
How many of you have heard of William
Carey?
Good.
He was a missionary.
He said, I can plod, undoubtedly the world
owes a great deal to men of genius,
but it is doubtful whether it owes as
much to such as to men of dogged
perseverance.
Perseverance is needed in every phase of the
Christian life.
Nothing is obtained in the spiritual realm by
a hop, skip and a jump, so to
speak.
We don't get anywhere that way.
When William Carey began thinking of going to
India as a pioneer missionary, his father pointed
out to him that he possessed no academic
qualifications that would fit him for such a
task.
Son, you don't have what you need.
But William Carey answered, I can plod.
I can plod.
Those who accomplish things for the glory of
God and the good of humanity are plodders.
Plodders that are willing to lay four brick
a day and keep laying another four brick
a day.
And he indeed was a pioneer missionary that
went out and accomplished things for God that
others had not ventured into.
Well, I trust you'll take this home and
in a year from now, you won't be
the same anymore.
If you do, you won't be.
I guarantee it to you.
Make Jesus Lord of your life.
Seek Him like an enduring prayer warrior and
read your Bible constructively every day.
God bless you.