Centering the Mind on God's Word

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Jos 1:8

There Can be no Sufficient Obedience Without Meditation

"We are responsible, not only to do what we know, but to know what there is to be known. The ambassador who refused to open the dispatches of his government would plead ignorance in vain. When Nelson shut his eye against his admiral’s signal, he was none the less guilty of disobedience. Men may neglect to read the Scriptures, and then say, “I knew not that I transgressed,” but the very ignorance which they plead is an aggravated form of guilt. God complains of Ephraim, “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.”

There can be no satisfactory meditation which does not center in God Himself. (Jos_1:9.) “Have not I commanded thee?” We must look through the written word up to God, whom it is meant to reveal. We must look through all revelation on to Him. The Bible is light on God. The miracles of Christ are not recorded to excite wonder, they are to reveal God. It is possible to make Gethsemane, the Lord’s Supper, and even the Cross so many superstitions. The brazen serpent became a relic at which men stopped, rather than a memory through which they went on to God. Hezekiah did holy work, then, to break it in pieces, and to call it “Nehushtan.” If Christ be not risen again, even Calvary is worthless; “Your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Gethsemane, the Supper, the Cross, are only good as they reveal the finished atonement and love of the living Saviour, and through Him the pardon and love of God. Riddling all superstitions of mere Bible-reading and formal religion through and through, the living Son of God looks down from heaven, and says to Saul of Tarsus, “That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified BY FAITH THAT IS IN ME.” (Act_26:18.) Faith is to be in the living Christ, not in cold duties and dead things. Trench has somewhere said, “Our blessedness is that Christ does not declare to us a system, and say, ‘This is the truth;’ so doing He might have established a school: but He points to a person, even to Himself, and says, ‘I am the Truth;’ and thus He founded, not a school, but a Church, a fellowship which stands in its faith upon a person, not in its tenure of a doctrine, or at least upon this only in a sense which is mediate and secondary.”
​(Preacher's Homiletical)

THE CHARACTER AND SPHERE OF COURAGE
The strength which courage draws from the Scriptures

"To neglect the Bible is to prepare the way for fear and trembling. (a) There can be no sufficient courage without light, and the Bible is “a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.” The awe which comes from darkness. (b) There can be no sufficient courage without confidence of being right, and the Bible assures the just man. The hesitation which comes from uncertainty. (c) There can be no sufficient courage without love, and our love is born of knowing the love of God. (d) There can be no sufficient courage without hope, and he who neglects the Bible can have no satisfactory ground of hope. 2. It is not enough to have the Bible, it must be used. (a) The courage that comes from speaking the truth to others: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.” (b) The courage that comes from meditation in the truth: “Thou shalt meditate therein day and night.” (c.) The courage that comes from doing the truth: “That thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein.”

The law of the Scriptures is the mind of God, and he who keeps ever with the law is always where God stoops to whisper, “I am with thee.” "When God established His commandments in the earth, He bade law, both in the physical and moral worlds, be on the side of goodness. From that day to this, law has never sided with the sinner. But though much of God’s help of His children is through law, this is by no means His only method. He adds His direct blessings, and gives His direct help to the obedient. Nothing is written more emphatically in Scripture than this. The deliverance from Egypt, the miracles of the wilderness, the walls of Jericho falling without any cause in ordinary law; the histories given by Samuel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and other prophets, are full of incidents of Jehovah’s direct interposition. The Psalms tell us of the angels that encamp about them that fear the Lord, and both the Old and New Testaments often shew them coming to the guidance, or comfort, or help of the godly. The cross, most emphatically of all, tells of help other than by the automatic method of law, to which modern scientists would tie us. True discipleship not only finds Christ, and cries with Nathanael, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God;” it hears Christ reply of the earthly future, “Hereafter thou shalt see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” The eyes of the obedient see an open heaven even while yet on earth, and life everywhere becomes all but sentient with God. “If God” so “be for us, who can be against us?” Thus does our Father guarantee “good success.”

In Summary:
These inspirations are very good, but, when reading them it's important to realize that nowhere in scripture does it promise you will become a millionaire, or own a Rolls Royce. Over the years, I have never failed to know the guidance, and provision of my needs, God has been faithful to me, and continues to answer my prayers. I do not ask for riches, nor want them, my mindset is described in these verses:
Pro 30:8  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 
Pro 30:9  Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. 

These verses give this instruction:
1. We can't know God by our own imaginations-He reveals Himself by and through His written word. Whatever manifestation or vision we may have-we have the scriptures to guide us as to whether the vision is by the Holy Ghost-or we are being deceived, knowledge of the word of God brings His discernment.
2. We must put away vanity and lies from our life, in order to correctly walk with Him, and know Him. Lying isn't just a bad habit-it is a sin against God, and He will bring us to account on Judgment day, for every lie that we've told, and not repented of. People do not consider this a serious sin-but, God does. And, repentance of a sin means to confess it, and turn away from it, stop lying, and tell the truth.
3. We must learn as Paul spoke of-learning to be satisfied and content with what God arranges for us, and our quota of responsibilities and His provisions for us.
What does this accomplish?
1. It defeats the devils work of trapping us in deceptions of self-righteousness.
2. It defeats the growth of haughtiness and pride.
3. It eliminates the sin of greed, gluttony, and the insatiable appetite that can never be satisfied. 

Pro 30:14  There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. 
Pro 30:15  The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: 
Pro 30:16  The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. 
Pro 30:17  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Many of the mega ministries try to claim their riches came from God, time will prove out if that's true, when we stand before God. Satan answers prayers, and gives people what they want; he is the god of this world. Wealth is not proof of your obedience to the Lord, or your standing with Him. Consider the amount of manipulations, and underhanded tactics these people go through to stay in their positions. It causes me to want nothing to do with it. Jesus didn't pass the offering plate-when he fed the 5000 fish and bread. He took the few fish and bread given to him by the boy-and prayed over it and told the disciples to pass it on to those seated with Him. I'm not against mega ministers, but I've been watching them for many years, and know very well, that the faith they claim to be using-isn't real. It's contrived. I'm not going to help them take their vacations, get their tummy tucks, or purchase their planes.

It was no accident that the school systems in this country took prayer and bible reading out of the classrooms. Satan succeeded in getting God's laws deleted from the school learning programs, because he knew that within a short time, the knowledge of right and wrong would be corrupted, twisted, and confusion would be the result. What do we have now?...kids who have no concept of the damage that lying does to a society, why truth is so important. Now, kids and adults live in delusions, and they make up their own truth. God created man and woman-two genders, even the animals know this simple fact; but now kids are labeling themselves many twisted genders, and mutilating their bodies. This is insanity, it's mental illness, but, many parents and school systems are now promoting it-and legal battles now rage between parents and the kids over this insanity. Satan has won the battle of eliminating the boundaries God gave us in His word, and now we are seeing the chaos it's brought.

Meditating on the scriptures, and abiding by them-brings light and understanding in the way of walking in righteousness, and fellowship with God. The more I study it, the more my discernment increases, teaching me right from wrong, and becoming quick to be able to see the difference in my everyday life. Our behavior and our decisions will reflect what we spend our time on, and fill our minds with.
Lorna Couillard