wonderful words

I don’t often hear the word statute beyond the halls where legalese is spoken. But it’s a weighty word. It is law—it is binding. To love a statute and to delight in it, I must be well-acquainted with the heart that declared it and assured of His good will. Like the psalmist, my obedience is inseparable with my confidence in the goodness of God.

“I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly” (Psalm 119:8). “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word” (Psalm 119:16). “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes” (Psalm 119:23). “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end” (Psalm 119:33). “My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes” (Psalm 119:48). “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” (Psalm 119:54). “Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes” (Psalm 119:68). “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

Golden thought: I will delight myself in Your statutes.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (November 11 reading).]

It takes the work of the Spirit in our hearts to see the Lord Jesus as both God and man. To see Him only as one, and not the other, is to be left sadly savior-less. See here how Peter gets it—as we do—when with Peter-like conviction we confess Christ to be Lord of our life.

Jesus asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? . . . But whom say ye that I am?” and Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13, 15–16). “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11). “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). John wrote, “I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot” (Revelation 1:12–13).

Golden thought: The Son of man is come to seek that which was lost.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (November 4 reading).]

“Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake” (Psalm 31:16). “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians. 2:15). “A new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth” (1 John 2:8).

Golden thought: You shine as lights in the world.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (October 28 reading).]

“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright” (Psalm 19:13). “Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” (Psalm 90:16–17). “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word” (Psalm 119:17). “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes” (Psalm 119:23). “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes” (Psalm 119:135). “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it” (Psalm 119:140). “Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him, O ye servants of the Lord” (Psalm 135:1).

Golden thought: Deal bountifully with Your servant that I may live.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (October 21 reading).]

“God . . . who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22). “In whom [Christ] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19). “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3). “And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Revelation 22:10).

Golden thought: You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (October 14 reading).]