Words to Live By

“Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees…. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” – Psalm 119:12-14

My parents bought me my first study Bible about 35 years ago. I still use it to this day when I’m preparing sermons. And as I turned to Psalm 119 this past week, I saw a lot of notes in the margins from at least 10, possibly 20 years ago. Next to verses 12 -14, I wrote this question: “Do I ask God to teach me His laws, and do I rejoice and delight in following them?”

 

Good question. I wish I could tell you that in the years since I wrote this question in the margin, I have done this without fail. But I haven’t. Like you, I have read God’s Word many times without first praying, “God, please teach me what You want to teach me.” And so many times after I’ve finished reading from the Bible, listening to a sermon or attending a Bible study, I have forgotten to rejoice in what God has taught me, and I haven’t delighted in doing what He has taught me to do.

 

I don’t know about you, but I want that to change this year. And I invite you to join me. Late January may seem a little late for resolutions … but it’s NOT too late to begin making God’s teaching a priority in our lives.

 

The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, “As it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’—but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” So, how does the Holy Spirit reveal to us what God has prepared for those who love Him? He reveals it in His Word. If you prayerfully seek God with your whole heart and walk in His ways this year, I promise you: You will see what most people can’t see; you will hear what most people can’t hear; and you will understand what most people can’t understand.

 

I’d like to share with you 3 important steps for keeping God’s Word a top priority in 2025:

 

Step #1: Prayerfully read God’s Word every day. Many Christians across our nation are reading the whole Bible in 2025. If you’d like to set this as a goal for yourself or, better yet, your family, I highly recommend it! If you’re short on time for reading, the YouVersion Bible app offers audio versions of the whole Bible in multiple translations.

 

Step #2: Prayerfully memorize one Bible verse every week. If you go online, you can find several lists of the best 52 Bible verses to memorize in a year. Although we’re halfway through January, I encourage you to begin doing this today. Fifty verses are far better than zero!

 

Step #3: Prayerfully study God’s Word with your church family every week. In Acts 2:42, we’re told what the top four priorities were for the first Christian Church in Jerusalem. Guess what was at the top of the list? “Teaching.” At Impact, we keep it at the top of our list as well. I encourage you to study God’s Word with your church family every Sunday this year.

 

Would you join me in prayerfully reading God’s Word every day, prayerfully memorizing God’s Word every week, and prayerfully studying God’s Word with your church family every week? I hope and pray that you will.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services: in person at 9 a.m., or online at 10 a.m. on YouTube or Facebook. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Are You a Lover or a Hater?

 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” – 1 John 3:16

None of us want to stand before God on Judgment Day and discover that we weren’t really Christians. And in the meantime, during this life, we want to be able to distinguish real Christians from false Christians.

 

In 1 John 3:10, we read: “This is how we know … who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” Let’s examine the second distinguishing characteristic of God’s true children: God’s children love one another.

 

In verse 12, immediately after reminding us that children of God “should love one another,” John shines the spotlight on the first human being who did the exact opposite of that: Cain. Christians are to be lovers; Cain was a hater. John writes: “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.” God called Cain to love his brother, but instead, Cain hatefully butchered him. Why? John answers, “Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous” (v. 12).

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear that when we harbor intense anger and hatred in our hearts toward someone else, God views that bitter anger and hate as murder. That’s because murder begins in the heart. But just as Cain was the trailblazer for hate and death, Jesus Christ is the trailblazer for love and life. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

1 John 3:16 is like the sequel to John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We who follow Christ also ought to, in love, “lay down our lives for our brothers.” John makes it clear that the essence of Godly love is self-sacrifice, which has been perfectly demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

 

Here are three Life Lessons we can draw from this passage:

 

Life Lesson #1: Don’t hate like Cain. If you harbor anger and hate toward another Christian, you are guilty of murder in your heart. So, get rid of all your lingering anger and hate. If you are a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, there is no room in your heart for harboring bitterness or hate against anyone, especially a fellow Christian.

 

Life Lesson #2: Love like Jesus. The essence of Christlike love is self-sacrifice. So, if you are a follower of Christ, you must sacrificially put others’ needs above your own. In humility, Jesus considered others’ needs more important than His own. That’s why He willingly died on the cross.

 

Life Lesson #3: When you walk in obedience and Christlike love, you can be confident that Christ lives in you and will hear and answer your prayers. In verses 21-22, John seems to be making this point: If we, by God’s mercy and grace, have a clear conscience before God, we can come confidently and boldly to God in prayer.

 

False Christians follow in Cain’s footsteps: They disobey God’s commands and harbor hate against others. But true Christians follow in Jesus’ footsteps: They do what is morally right, and they love others with a self-sacrificing, Godly love.

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church, meeting Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. at 16209 Kamana Road in Apple Valley. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.