Life Oriented in God's Word

How do you engage with the Bible?

I read it every morning, let it soak in.

I don't even try life without it.

I just read it every day.

Sit down on my couch with a cup of coffee and read it.

So just asking others, just trying to get a collective understanding of what the Bible teaches and how to implement that in daily life.

Podcast, YouTube videos.

I really like the uh like Bible archaeology uh videos.

I really get into that with my community, with people older than me, with people who have more wisdom.

We often will put Bible verses up on like the mirror on the vanity.

Friends, community helps me understand it well.

I know I've done different, I'm doing different studies with different friends through the summer.

So if I'm going through like a really hard time, I like to just like read some important chapters about it.

Sometimes I just like take it out and just read it.

Yeah.

I brought a couple Bibles with me today.

Um we'll discuss what's in a few of these, but I need to let you know here from the very beginning that I got a couple key ones that are missing.

I'll tell you about that in a second.

Uh my name is Woody.

If we've never met before, I'm one of the pastors here, and we're actually in our third week of uh uh series of trying to focus in on what we believe and what we believe about scripture.

And so I thought it was fitting here in the final, the third one, that I would bring in some of my Bibles and try to just talk to you about how God has absolutely changed my life and shaped me in so many ways through his word.

And by the way, if any of my high school teachers would be here today, and maybe they are, it'd be shocking if they were, they'd be like, You read more than one page of a book?

How did that transformation happen?

There is a God, there is miracles, and a guy that barely passed high school found that when you get in and dig into what God has left us, the love letters, to point us to Jesus, it changes everything.

I'm kind of sad.

One of my favorite Bibles uh was when I was uh a young adult.

I had it up until the age of 27, and uh this Bible was so worn out, uh I had to use blue painter's tape to keep it together.

Uh I think Galatians might have been missing for a little while, and then I'd find it and stick it back in.

And you know, when you try to glue stuff, tape stuff, and uh I was so hungry to learn about God, but one of the saddest things in the world happened.

There's this little fast food restaurant in Pasadita area called Topps Burgers, and they have the best breakfast burrito in the world.

And I was there meeting with a guy, and we were reading the Bible together, talking, and I got in my car and I drove to work and I was like, no, my Bible.

And I went back to uh try to get my Bible, and the server that was there said, Oh, that thing looks so trash to whatever.

I thought it was trash, I threw it in the trash.

I was so desperate for that Bible that I went back behind the building and jumped in the dumpster and was dumpster diving for the word of God.

I never found that one, but it's okay.

It made me dive deeper and hopefully everything that shaped me was in here, even more than just in some pages of a book.

There's another book uh of the Bible that isn't in there, or another Bible that isn't there, and it was my first childhood Bible that was actually an adult Bible.

I don't have it today.

I can't show it to you because I believe it was in my childhood uh bedroom where my parents' house uh burned in the Altadina fires two years ago, and so I don't have it to show it to you, but if you could imagine my first adult Bible at around 10 years old.

No more pictures, time to giddy up, big boy time, read the scriptures, right?

And I remember getting that Bible and opening it up and go, where should I start reading?

I'm like, Psalm one.

And I opened up Psalm one and I read these words that I want to start this morning with.

As a 10-year-old, I read, Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yield its fruits in a season.

What a perfect verse for a 10-year-old that would probably through high school and in other spaces of life struggle to read, but could always remember the imagery of if I want to be a tree that grows and blossoms, God's word is gonna shape something radical in me.

I was reading a book uh called Shaped by the Word by Robert Moulhland, and in it he had a quote where he gave some research that two different authors had done.

Hawkins and Parkinson wrote about their research about what they saw in churches, said this nothing has a greater impact on spiritual growth than reflection on scripture.

If churches could do only one thing to help people at all levels of spiritual maturity grow in relationship with Christ, the choice is clear.

They would inspire, encourage, and equip their people to read the Bible.

That is exactly why we've done these three weeks.

And uh, if for some reason you weren't able to be here the last two weeks, I'd highly recommend.

In fact, I already had somebody tell me today that they did this, go back to the uh the YouTube Hillside channel and watch what Pastor Aaron just laid out for us and what it means to study the scriptures, to understand them, to have it be a habit of their life.

And part of that quote, I want to ask you a question is do you really believe that?

That if there is one thing Hillside Community Church could do is make sure that you take this book seriously, the scriptures, the Bible, the love letter from God for us so that we would know Jesus, know about Jesus, would you agree?

Or if you were quick to think, would you be like, no, no, no, would you understand?

It's the coffee bar.

That is the number one most important thing because it helps us stay awake so we can hear the scriptures.

Or would we be tempted to say, no, no, no, no, Sunday morning when we all get together, it's really important.

Those things may help and be a part of it, but you and I have access to what God wants to shape in us.

And for a lot of us, if right now I said, Where's your daily reader?

By the way, I decided to call it like that instead of like your daily driver if you got a car that gets you from work.

If right now you had to guess where your daily reader is, do you even know where it's at?

Did you bring it today?

Is it worn out?

Is it brand new?

Have you had an old one that got accidentally thrown in the dumpster and you didn't wait two years before you got another one?

Today, my hope is that the Holy Spirit and the stories that I tell you out of Scripture and how God has radically changed my life inspire you to go deeper with God by making sure you spend a lifetime in the Word.

And so part of what I want you to do is grab your Bibles if you have it.

If you don't have your Bible today, you could grab a phone and you can look in your uh U version Bible or a wide range of other possibilities.

And what you're gonna do is you're gonna open up to Deuteronomy.

It's the Old Testament, first five books of the Bible, it's right in there.

Pull out Deuteronomy chapter 17, and you can stick a finger in that section of the Bible because that's gonna be our base camp for the day where we're gonna read from.

Deuteronomy 17 · chapter mention

But I want to give you some context before I read Deuteronomy 17.

And the context I want to give you is this is kind of fun.

Could you forget that I'm a pastor?

Is that possible?

That's kind of hard.

It's hard to do, right?

But imagine me a normal person.

I eat three, okay, four or five meals a day.

Uh I like food.

Uh I have to take a shower, get dressed, I have to save money, have to pay bills.

Like I am a normal person like you.

Imagine me as a normal person choosing and having to get in God's word just like you.

I came across this Deuteronomy chapter 17 passage, not because I was trying to study for a sermon and I needed to find something because I don't want to look foolish on this platform and not have anything to say.

Deuteronomy 17 · chapter mention

This is what's so fun about this passage.

This was in my daily reading 17 uh uh days ago.

This is what I read.

And when I read it, I was so excited about it.

I was wrestling with it, thinking about it, and then we ended up in the series.

I'm like, not only am I personally excited about it, I can't wait to preach it.

So forget about me being a pastor for a second and an everyday, normal, Christ-following disciple like you that needs to be in God's word, okay?

In chapter 17, Moses is talking, and Moses is talking on behalf of God.

Some people will call this section Moses' farewell speeches.

And in these farewell speeches, Moses is uh saying things like, be careful of idols, make sure your daily decisions honor Yahweh, the living God, be careful of your actions and all types of heart matters.

And the reason that it's called his farewell address is they have left Egypt.

They're in the desert in the Moab region, and eventually they will be going into the promised land, but Moses won't be going with them.

So Moses is relaying everything that God is telling them so that they have all this stuff that will help them check themselves before they wreck themselves, okay?

And in the middle of chapter 17, there's the most bizarre kind of like, I'd call it a rabbit trail moment.

The majority of things that are being told them is for right then and there, their context.

But there's something so significant that God wants to make sure the people of Israel, the Israelites hear, that he gives them something that won't even be uh important for 400 years in the future when they potentially want their own king and they get their own king.

And so this is why I was so intrigued by this passage.

If you look at verse 14 in chapter 17, it says, When you enter the land the Lord promised you.

This is future conversation, this is warning conversation, this is make sure you're ready conversation.

And it starts to talk about when they choose a king.

In verse 18, here's the description for the king and what he needs to do to be right with God.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.

It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life, so that they that he may learn to revere the Lord his God, and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites, and turn from the law to the right or to the left, then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

Wow, what an intriguing passage.

I I hope I'm just not uh a weirdo that thought this was an amazing little section of scripture, and you're kind of intrigued by it as well.

In fact, I had forgotten about this being in Deuteronomy.

I don't know how many of you remember that it was there.

This is a direct, like do this future please.

The kings have to know God and his ways.

It would be 400 years until the first king, and then there would be 18 to 1920-some kings.

And we know that if we study the history of Israel when they went into the promised land, not all the kings lived well.

They were distracted by foreign gods, idols, small g gods.

They were distracted by their own uh temptations and desires.

And here God is telling Moses to tell the people the best thing your leader could do is be deeply rooted in God's law.

If you look at the details of it, it's kind of amazing because normally kings don't do difficult things that get other people to do it.

By the way, I've never woken up and wanted to be a king, but if I were a king, you don't even dress yourself.

Like they have your robes all ready for you and you just stand there and they dress you up, be like, get off me, right?

Or eating, you don't get to cook anymore.

Those of you that love cooking, like a king, they bring you food and you don't even get to eat it first.

They give it to the other guy to make sure it's not poisoned first and then you get to eat it, right?

This passage is so radical because technically what should be happening here is you are the king, you don't do anything.

We'll hire some scribes for you and make you a personalized uh set of the books of the law, the first five books of the ball of the Bible.

But no, God tells Moses, I want this king to know it here and know it here.

He is to write his own personal copy.

What I also think is so intriguing about this is the fact that a lot of times uh we like to blame, you know, our spiritual leader didn't lead us well.

It'd be really easy for the king in this to go, that's the priest's job.

They're supposed to know the books of God's law backwards and forward, and they should be informing me of what I should do.

So if I ever missed it, it was their fault.

Isn't it great that this passage right away just points out the king is responsible for the king, is responsible for the king himself, and he needs to know what God is up to in his life and for all the people.

I am so challenged by this scripture because sometimes at the different seasons of our life or ages, we feel like, you know, I know this pretty well.

I've kind of worked my way through all these different Bibles and Scripture.

I I could take a couple years, hiatus, and just occasionally check it out every once in a while.

This is a command that for any king to thrive under God, there are some major prescriptions, things that he's supposed to do.

And I think today, if we read them as descriptions of character and practice, we might find ourselves in a better spot living deeply with God than if we do it on our own.

St.

Augustine said this about the Bible: the Bible is shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim.

I don't want anybody in this room to let themselves off the hook going, I'm too young to read the Bible, or Woody, I'm just like you.

I barely passed high school, I'm not smart enough to read the Bible, or the opposite, I'm too old, I've read it enough, I know every story in there, it doesn't really capture my attention.

There is a depth in God's words that it should be for a lifetime.

If you look at that verse 18, I want to show you how uh just kind of some of the descriptions of what happened here.

Remember, this isn't a prescription.

I don't want you guys to go home, buy a big old thing of college rule uh notebook paper and write out the first five books of the Bible from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.

I don't want you to do that.

But I want you to pay attention to the descriptive nature that could change our character and our study and our devotion and our passion for God.

Do you know in the English, in the first five books of the Bible, there's probably 90 to 110,000 words, depending upon the translation.

Could you imagine writer's cramped?

Oh my word, that would take so long.

And my handwriting is so messy.

When I would come back to it, I'd be like, what chapter did I already copy over?

Did I get that right?

Uh in this, in my current newer Bible that I just got four months ago, 266 pages the king was supposed to write.

I think there's a description here where the mind, the eyes, the hand will impact the heart.

Do we realize what the king was called to and what we might be called to in different ways and in different forms and in different shapes?

I think what the king was hearing, if you were to read this Deuteronomy moment, would be like, if I don't get right with God, how can I ever lead anybody?

If you and I don't get right with God, how can we be an example for Christ?

How can our hearts be transformed and changed if we don't know the one that knows us?

Here's what I thought I would do.

I would highlight verses uh 19 and 20 in a particular way with some of the language, so you could see where I feel really challenged.

I want my mind, I want my eyes, I want my hands, I want my heart to change for my entire life, not just to go back and go, there are a couple times in my life I read the Bible, and that was good enough.

I want to grow for my entire life.

So here's what I put for God's daily word, verse 19.

Did you notice the language that hints that close proximity?

It says in there, for the king and descriptively, maybe for us, it is to be with him.

Do you know where your Bible is right now?

I know that sounds so basic, but for some of us that might be a really good question today.

You're like, ah no, I just listen to it every once in a while.

But do you know where your Bible is?

One of the fun things that I've been seeing that some people uh over the years that have been following Christ, it makes a huge difference, is they actually try to bring it with them places.

So when they go to work, they'll put it in their car and then they'll park and they get there 15 minutes early and then they'll just go, I could read for 10 minutes.

I got here before traffic and I'm all good and I got some time to be with God, and now it shapes the rest of their day.

Uh they they don't stick it in the back of a closet or underneath all the laundry where it's forgotten about for a couple months or a couple years or something like that.

It ends up having a place of prominence where it's like it's just sitting there kind of whispering all the time: read me, read me, read me.

This close proximity changes things.

And then there's language for a lifetime, all the days of his life.

Have you gotten cold towards God's word after you've been following for so long?

Or do you have the same deep passion, new passion or renewed passion, young or old, all the days of your life?

The purpose is to learn to revere the Lord his God.

A king probably had to make sure that he always was reminded, I'm not the most amazing thing on the planet.

God is.

God is greater than me.

And if I'm not in his word, how will I respect, have awe, and have reverence for the one that wants me to follow?

And finally, in that verse 19, there's an outcome.

It's so that he would follow carefully all the words.

19 challenged me so much to just kind of hold it up as a mirror to my own life.

Where are you guys at with that?

Think about it for a second.

How are you following God and your study of his love letter to you?

The reason we've done three weeks in a row on what we believe about the scriptures is we do believe this shapes us as disciples.

We do it on Sunday morning, but we should be doing it all week long, and we should be doing it even maybe a smaller group where there's back and forth conversation.

We love Sunday mornings having a chance to uh tell you about God's word, but the only thing that we don't get to do in this large of a group is there isn't back and forth conversation.

And so if you're not a part of a group, that's another amazing place to be in these scriptures.

Friday night I sat with a rooted uh group that uh recently was together, and I just observed them as they began to tell stories and quote scriptures and remind each other what God had told each of them in different moments of their rooted experience together.

And I just again felt like I love Sunday mornings, but it's a one-way conversation.

I love when people are sitting around God's word having a dynamic, back and forth two-way conversation.

Verse 20 gives us more descriptors.

Remember, this isn't prescriptive.

You and I are not kings and queens, even though some of you call your friends queens.

Uh this may be fit for a king in Deuteronomy and throughout the rest of Israel's history, but I really do believe it's fit for us too.

In verse 20, there's some other language around humility and being humble.

It says in verse 20 that the king is not to consider himself better than his fellow Israelites.

How great is this passage that right in the middle of a king getting instructions from God, he's humbled to the place where he realizes I am just the same as all my subjects.

Whether you're a peasant or a king, you need God.

Whether you are a king or a peasant, you're not smarter than God.

This was a moment where humility was a highlighted moment for the king, and I think for you and I, that when we show up to Scripture, we show up not to look for what just we want to give us confidence to do what we need to do.

We show up and say, God, I'm reading your word.

Would your word read me?

Transformed only by you.

I have things I'm ready to ask for forgiveness for all the time in here.

Besides the whole focus on humility, there's also some language around wandering prevention.

Some of us have cars now that if we go outside the lanes, it beeps.

If we get too close to the car in front of us, it beeps.

You know what the scriptures are?

It is a beeping mechanism so you don't wreck your life.

Wandering prevention, the language in there was no turning to the right or to the left.

And finally, there was a promise of lifetime faithfulness that he and his descendants would reign and rule, that the scriptures would shape something different.

I promise Aaron and I and the whole teaching team are not bored and just want to try to talk you guys into studying scripture just because we want you to study scripture.

We want you to be in God's word because it is changing us and we want it to change you.

Charles Spurgeon, a really popular uh uh preacher a couple hundred years ago, says this Nobody ever outgrows Scripture.

If you have ever watched a movie that you loved, forgot about it, and then gone back to it, aren't there always parts that you forgot about?

Do you know if you've loved this at one season in your life, but you feel like you mastered it and you haven't gone back to it, I guarantee you've forgotten what it needs to say to you for this season right here, right now.

We are trying to create space today to remind you God loves you so much, and one of the best ways that our God wants to get your attention is for us to be people of the word.

Women and men of the word.

Whether you're old or young, I am seeing people that inspire me.

One of the fun things that I've been noticing lately is when our students came back from camp this summer, I've been noticing some high school and junior higher sitting in church and they got their Bibles open and they're underlining, and they got another notebook and they're writing stuff.

And I sit there and I look at them and going, may that be the habit for the rest of their lives.

And when I see some of you that have been following Jesus forever and you're wearing out your 20th Bible, it makes me so excited to see what God can do.

I I wanted to bring my own kind of like history, like the people of Israel, sometimes they were really good at following God and sometimes they weren't.

And I brought a little bit of everything.

I got some Bibles here that when I bought them and I got into them, for some reason the format or my discipline or my ability to keep a good habit and go very well.

And you could tell some of these aren't read very well, and then there's other ones like this one that I had not painter's blue tape, but this is duct tape to hold it together.

That in a lot of these, this is a bragging on God's transformational power stack of Bibles, not anything about me.

This represents when I'm at my best in following Jesus, I am in his word and it is changing me.

And so what I thought I could do here a little bit is show you how many different ways and how many different seasons God has changed my life, either reading on my own or reading with a smaller group of people where there's two-way conversation, or even coming to church with my Bible.

By the way, we all love to be hands-free these days, you know, hands-free driving, hands-free radio.

I mean, everything else.

I think the Bible's one thing we don't want to be hands-free from.

I think it's a good in-your-hands thing.

And by the way, I supplement with listening to podcasts that talk about scripture.

I listen to the Bible app, uh, Lectio 365.

I mean, I can't get enough of scripture to shape me enough that I try a wide range of things.

But in here, I want to show you some of the fun ways that God has worked to me.

Here's what's interesting.

These three, I gotta have binoculars or my glasses on because who has a Bible that small anymore, right?

But let me tell you a couple of fun stories out of each of these because I'm bragging on how God has changed me with his word.

This one I have to do again like this because I don't have this Bible anymore.

But that childhood Bible at 10 years old, not only was Psalm 1 significant for me, reminding me if I want to be a tree that grows, I'm gonna be planted by streams of water and I'm gonna meditate on God's word day and night.

How cool is it that at 10 years old, that has stuck with me and motivated me and challenged me so many different times in my life.

There's also Psalm 119 that if I had that Bible still, I don't because it burned in the fire up in Altadina, and it's okay because it's just right here in my memory.

On the right hand page up at the top, Psalm 119 says, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light unto my path.

Isn't that crazy?

I could remember 10 years old where that was in my Bible.

I I have this Bible, and when I was a teenager, I was a little bit of a mess.

I was a little bit of a squirrel, and I didn't make very uh good decisions throughout the majority of my high school years.

If you know, you know, right?

And uh this page was always really worn out.

It's uh 1 Corinthians 10, uh verse 13.

No temptation has seized you except for what is common to mankind.

But God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear.

And when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out of that so you can stand firm.

Do you know that saved me from jail or being dead in high school?

And it still is saving me from sin and pride and temptation and everything else 45 years later.

God's word shaping for a lifetime.

Here's another Bible that I had when I was a young adult, and I thought it was so amazing when I started to connect some things when I was reading through the gospels, and again, I got to put on my glasses because I just can't read it, it's so small.

Uh, that when I read uh Matthew uh chapter 10, and it was so interesting because in this passage it really tries to emphasize what Jesus was telling his disciples.

And it goes on in uh uh chapter 11 and a couple other spaces, it just really wants to like shape this stuff in us.

But what I wanted to make sure that you knew that I got excited about was in 1 Corinthians, uh, this whole process of making sure that I don't fall out of temptation really played itself forward when as a young adult I started reading Matthew chapter 3, verse 8, and Luke chapter 3, verse 8.

Matthew 3:8 Luke 3:8

I was so surprised that they were the same verse in both locations in the Gospels.

And if you ever see something twice, you might want to pay attention to it.

And all of a sudden, I go from making sure that I don't fall into temptation to making sure I have a repentant lifestyle and heart posture.

And all of a sudden, as a young adult, I was reading in this Bible, and for the first time in my life, I actually took a notebook and started wrestling with what it would be like if I took God's word seriously, wrote about it, and actually confessed.

Do you know this book represents some of the greatest transformation in my life because I took God's word and God and following and a relationship seriously?

It's really fun.

There's some other ones that gave me some hope in my adult life.

And in this Bible, I'll never forget how much Matthew was really kind of just emphasized for a while there because the gospels were something that I just needed.

And when Jesus was talking to the disciples, he talked about being uh in right relationship instead of just this heavy, burdensome religion.

And in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29 and 30, it was so freeing through my adult years to remember that Jesus says this to the disciples, and he says it to us take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.

Matthew 11:29

You will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

No matter how old I got, feeling restless about life and the difficulties of this planet, I wanted to keep learning from Jesus.

And the way I was going to learn from Jesus was to stay right here in this.

And now, what I love to call this season of life is I love to call it the mature years.

That's what people say when they're over 55.

Two weeks ago, I was reading, not for a sermon, not for my job.

I was reading out of Psalm 71, and I came across a little something that I actually wrote, Levi Prayer 731 26, because all I could think about was my grandson.

And in verse 5 it says, For you have been my hope, sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.

From birth I have relied on you.

You brought me forth from my mother's womb.

I will ever praise you.

And I just started praying.

God, thank you for that passage.

Would that be the words of Levi as he grows up?

And I haven't had a chance to tell you, Levi came and joined us in this world, and this is the little boy that I've been praying for when I read those scriptures.

The Bible is for every moment and every context of life.

You know what's so crazy?

I kept reading on in uh chapter uh uh 71, and this is what I read.

For me, that was for Levi, this is for me.

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.

How amazing is it that these scriptures, the Bible, the new one that I bought so I could actually read it because it has big enough print, continues to want to shape me right here, right now.

And part of the reason that I felt like I was supposed to read that Deuteronomy passage is I feel challenged again.

Am I a student of God's word?

Am I a learner about the love relationship that Jesus Christ has been just proclaimed throughout the scriptures?

Or do I kind of go, I know this stuff back and forwards, I've read it a hundred times, or am I still digging in?

Church, if you're afraid of this because you've never read it before and you're not sure if you're smart enough, you are.

And if you're nervous, there's groups we can get you in that will help you figure this thing out.

And if you've been following Jesus forever and you've grown a little cold, you know what's been so sweet for me the last four months?

Buying a new Bible and reading some scriptures that I got so excited about, and then going back here and looking it up and going, oh wow, I highlighted that one as well.

It meant something to me back then in a different way, and it means something new.

God, your word is active and alive, and it is shaping me.

Church, I hope today the Holy Spirit and these scriptures are inspiring you to be in God's word.

Here's how I want to end today because I'm really hoping the Holy Spirit is grabbing your attention today.

I've opened up my Bible to Psalm 1.

Remember, I was 10 years old when I remember reading that one.

I want to read it to you twice today.

And the first time I just want you to listen to the words.

What word sticks out to you?

Can you imagine the imagery of what it's like to have a tree that is fully flourishing?

And by the way, I said this the last gathering.

If I went out to the door and uh uh as you were walking out, if I said to every person who walked out, do you want to be a tree that flourishes in its season?

Uh I doubt anyone's gonna look at me and go, no, Woody, I love to be old and dried up and have my limbs break off, and I love to have wilted leaves and I love to look wrinkly and old and right.

Psalm one knows our hearts we want to flourish.

And Psalm 1 is telling us how to flourish.

Are we doing it?

If you brought your Bible today, can I beg you just to open it up?

Even if you don't get to Psalm 1, I just want you to hold it open symbolically.

And if you brought your phone because you read from your scriptures like that, will you hold your phone in front of you right now?

And guess what?

I heard I guess probably nobody did this, but if you didn't bring your phone or your Bible, will you fictitiously hold up a Bible?

And I want to read this as you think about these words and look at these words on the screen, because I'm hoping something will be loosened in you or shift in you or grow or re-engage in you.

Psalm one says this blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night?

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.

What words?

What pictures did God bring alive in your heart and your mind just now?

I wonder what you're supposed to do with that.

Here's what I want you to do with your hands still holding a Bible, a phone, or a pretend Bible, will you close your eyes?

And I'm gonna read it one more time.

And this is the prayer that I have for you as I read it with your eyes closed.

Would God show you how to find your Bible under the laundry?

Would God help you to buy a new Bible or re-engage?

Would God help you to get in a group where you could be in conversation with two or three people and rooted or alpha about these scriptures?

Close your eyes and listen to what God might be calling you to do.

Psalm 1 says this blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.

And with your eyes still closed, let me pray with you.

Lord, would you help us to follow through with what we know we need to do with you to know you?

Thank you for this love letter that points us to Jesus over and over again.

Thank you for your decrees, your laws.

All of the truth that you give us is right at our fingertips.

Help us to engage it.

And God, if some of us know we need to do it differently, need to create a habit or go back to an old habit with new vigor and reverence for you.

Would you help that to begin again this week?

We want to be women and men of your word.

I pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.