It's sweeter than honey! That's the truth! The king said so! More than that, God agrees! What the king was talking about, certainly was no cooking ingredient for cakes or cookies.
HELP CRIES has a powerfully important mission of showing our silver-haired generation how to recognize the distress signals from ex-teens; those young adults from 20 to about 23 or so.
Because God has charged you and I with reaching out to these souls that God loves, we should be following a 'how-to' manual that shows us the way, gives case histories, and especially a guarantee if available. Well, God's precious written word does exactly that and a whole lot more. Even Satan demonstrates his great respect for the Bible by how hard he has tried for centuries to stamp it out; to corrupt it and undermine its perceived value in this day of computers and technology.
God has made His word available in so many ways and so many languages, you can't hardly list them all. Though a bookstore will sell you a Bible for $3.00 on up, I praise the Lord that He provides us His word for 'less than nothing'. I mean, you and I can download God's word to our computers for free. But more than that, you also get programs that help you search for words and phrases. There are connected dictionaries and concordances too. If that wasn't enough, these programs even let you make notes and build lessons, to share with others. See? It truly is God's word for less than free.
There are libraries upon libraries of resources that help us discover the diamonds of truth and peace in its pages. But I take great joy in knowing that God provided a heart-to-heart Teacher to us for scripture. He's called The Holy Spirit. In these days of technology and texting, God's word even provides us a whole storehouse of tweets we can (and should) share with others. Never let anyone think God's word is out of date. The storehouse of tweets are all grouped in the book of the Bible called PROVERBS.
Let's step back and get a short big picture of our unbeatable 'how-to' manual that comes with its own Teacher (Holy Spirit). All the PRINCIPLES and TRUTHS of scripture fall into four simple purposes, listed in 2nd Timothy 3: 16.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
The four groups are: doctrine (rules), reproof (testing), correction (penalties), and instruction (learning).
The largest chapter in our Bible is Psalms 119. Does it surprise you that the total of it, talks about God's law, precepts, and testimony? That's what became our Bible. While we're there, notice what King David tells us about scripture in verse 103. Now you know where we got our 'sweeter than honey' title.
So if we skip down just two verses we can see the four groups of PERSONAL APPLICATIONS of scripture.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ps 119:105. This simple verse about lamps and lights actually gives us a quartet of groups of APPLICATIONS.
A 'lamp unto my feet' is going to show me the conditions of myself (my shoes) and if my feet are on the path. The 'light unto my path' will show me the direction of the path and any dangers along the way. Do you see the four groups of applications? Think about how these applications might apply to that ex-teen that God has placed in your harvest field. Discuss this with a Christian friend. Maybe make a diagram that would show the application of these four groups.
Talking about groups, how about getting together with some of your silver-haired friends and see how you can develop this diagram even further. It'll be a blessing you won't forget. Be sure to ask your personal Bible teacher (Holy Spirit) to help out. That's just what He's really good at. He has a strangely wonderful way of taking a principle and showing you how apply it, in a different way than He did for another challenge you had at another time.
Note: in a later HELP CRIES segment, we'll develop these applications even further.
..
