Psalm 119:105 Tuesday

"Your word IS a lamp for my foot and light on my path." Psalm 119:105 CJB

When I was meditating on what I was going to say today – thoughts centering around the words Your word IS -- I remembered two pieces of paper that are priceless to me. (Laura, if you’re reading this, none of them are from you, honey. But I want you to know you hold the most priceless. Don’t ever doubt that; I have an entire folder full of things you’ve written me.) Two paper napkins with words written on them from three very special people. Tonya wrote “I was thinking of you today as I picked these, and wanted you to have some.” -- a friend picking strawberries who brought them, because she thought of me that day. And on the other napkin is mine, Bo Reh’s and Ku Reh’s names, that I asked them to write in Burmese, Karenni and English, Sunday night when we took them out to eat at Mancino’s, after Home Bible Study. [Two boys come from Burmese refugee camps to America and we take them out to eat pizza and teach them how to eat with their hands again. Somehow, something just seems wrong with this picture. Doesn’t it?] I asked them to write their name in Karenni, which is their native language, and in Burmese, which is different from Karenni. (Even though I call all my students Burmese, they come from different ethnic groups within the same country. Bo Reh and Ku Reh speak both languages. I asked them to write their names because I wanted them to see how hard their language is for me to read; they already know I can’t speak it. The meaning of a word depends on whether the ending sound goes up or down, the nouns and verbs are in different places compared to ours and every letter is written in circles, because the leaf they wrote on originally, would tear if they wrote in straight lines.) Then in the middle of our names written in Karenni and Burmese, are our names written in English; they write very readable English.

Just two napkins containing 28 words, total. And I would take nothing for either one. I’ve had Tonya’s on the refrigerator since May. Bo Reh and Ku Reh’s napkin I’ll put on the refrigerator today and in a file folder later on so I won’t lose it.The thing that makes these two napkins so significant to me is the relationship I have with the people who wrote the words. On Bo Reh and Ku Reh’s napkin, even though it’s only names, it’s their names. And even though it’s their names, those names belong to my students. And those students are very special people who had a very miserable life in a place they came from, but who have a significantly better life now. I’ve taken pictures of them so I’ll remember their faces. I’ve given them things like food and the basic necessities of life. We’ve gone places together. Even though we don’t speak each other’s language, we try. Tonya -- just a friend who once sat in my Bible classes who teaches classes of her own now -- Was there in the crowd when I taped my videos -- Told me she would use them for her clients suffering from depression -- Always giving me good advice from a counselor’s perspective, even though she’s a stay-at-home mom now -- Bringing me strawberries on a very bad day—leaving me a message on a napkin because she had nothing else to write on.

THE BIBLE: Book of the ages. Food for the soul. Divinely inspired. Furnishes light. A devouring flame. A crushing hammer. A life-giving force. A saving power. A penetrating sword. Written with a purpose. The standard of faith. Contains seed for the sower. Absolutely trustworthy. Profitable for instruction. Inspired by the Spirit. Worn on the hand and forehead. Written on the doorframes. Studied by rulers. Taught in the Psalms. Delight of the righteous. Effective. Enduring. Perfect. And Pure. Reverenced by people who stood when read. Left on the shelf. Never opened. Ignored.

It’s a book, not a napkin, not insignificant, not something to be thrown away. It’s meant to be read, not dusted once a week. It’s made people become martyrs because they proclaimed it. Yet it stays on the shelf waiting to be read by weak Christians.

Like Tonya and Bo Reh and Ku Reh’s napkin, The Bible is not just words written on a page, it’s about relationships, i.e. the author’s relationship with me, and my relationship with Him. It’s about names. Knowing His name and Him knowing mine.

It’s about being a student reading his book—his love letter to me. Reading. Studying. Memorizing.

It’s about a journey that takes me from where I once lived in a miserable condition, to being saved, with a Heavenly home.

It’s about someone who knows the very hairs on my head.

It’s about someone who supplies my every need and more.

It’s about being with someone who never leaves or forsakes me.
It’s about learning to speak His language (knowing I never will but trying).

God’s will for me is to be in his Word – to sit at His feet and listen. The natural progression of learning is to read, study, and memorize and to read, study and memorize some more.

Memorization starts with reading, which means if I want to memorize it, I must start reading it. Memorization makes me familiar with His words. With memorization His words are hidden within me. I take them wherever I go. If I really do know His words and do what He says, it’s hard for me to separate myself from Him. I do what He says. I recognize His voice. His words are life-changing for me. I start hearing them all the time. I can’t hear anything else. I have to speak them to others because they’re in my mind and on my tongue. Some people love talking to me; some people don’t. I eventually have no words but His – no life but His; I have died to myself and He now lives in me. I have tried, tested and approved His will. I have come to know it as His good, pleasing and perfect will.

I have made memories with God; I have been with Him so much. My relationship with Him is so much more than reading words on a page. What starts out as just sitting at his feet changes me into His image.

Maybe........that's why Satan........tries..........to keep me........from it.

Ancient Words
Ever New
Changing Me
And changing you
We have come with open hearts
O Let the ancient words impart.