I Chronicles 28:9 (NIV)

 As for you, my son  Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

Written in my Bible, given to me by Texas Christian University students nearly 40 years ago, are these words by I Chronicles 28:9: “Remember to share this verse with my loved ones before I die.”  Now I must have written those words in my Bible many years ago as I don’t recall having studied Chronicles since my earlier days as a rededicated Christian where I read through the entire Bible.  As I read through my relatively new Bible back then, I would write down thoughts by many verses and passages that impacted my heart and soul then (and still do today). 

Why do I want to share this verse with my children (and now my grandchildren)?  Just as King David was writing to his son, Solomon, I am wanting my progeny to (1) know God as I’ve tried to know Him; (2) serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind as I have tried to do; (3) realize that the Lord searches everyone’s heart and understand every intent of everyone’s thoughts; (4) know that if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; and (5) be fully aware of the warning that if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.  Each of these reasons for why I want my children and grandchildren to be aware of this verse is loaded with sobering truth and power beyond belief.

I want my children and grandchildren and all others in my family to know God.  To know God means to “know Him by experience”.  It is not a casual knowledge, it is intimate knowledge that only can come from a consistent effort to worship, pray, study His Word, and follow His commandments. 

I desire my children and grandchildren to serve the Lord with a whole heart and willing mind.  The words “whole” and “willing” express the imagery of someone who is proactive and resourceful in his/her service, not a casual or lazy Christian.  Christian service is defined in Romans 12 that emphasizes Christian love for others.  God is always looking for the person who wants to do what Romans 12 teaches.  Such a person most definitely has a whole heart and willing mind. 

I hope that my children and grandchildren realize the truth that the Lord searches all hearts and understands every thought and every intent.  It takes great faith to believe in the Lord and His incomprehensible characteristics that includes omniscience, the power to know all things.

Finally, I pray that my children and grandchildren desire and know how to seek the Lord and never have any inkling to forsake Him.  It takes proactivity and devotion to seek the Lord, being a Christian is not being lazy. Seeking is pursuing and the primary way to seek the Lord is to devote quality time and effort to read His Word and understand it sufficiently to apply it in your life.  So to know how to seek the Lord is simply knowing how to discipline yourself to spend time studying the Bible and maintaining that commitment for the rest of your life.  A person who seeks the Lord in this way will never have any inkling to forsake Him.  But, a person who is lazy and does not put in the time and effort to get to know God by studying His Word and then applying it in your life is a person who risks forsaking God and being rejected by Him.  Why ever take that risk?

Only God knows the intents of the heart and can judge a person.  I can never judge my children and grandchildren whether or not they follow the truths of this verse.  I can only hope and pray for them and make sure that they know that this verse exists.  That’s why I wrote that I must share this verse with them before I die.  I hope that whoever reads this would feel encouraged to do the same thing with your loved ones. 

Most Read Bible Verses---#1---John 3:16

John 3:16 (NIV)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” 

John 3:16, according to the website, BibleGateway.com, is the most popular (most read and most cited) verse in the entire Bible.  Indeed, this verse is considered the summary verse of Christianity.  For example, the letters of the word  “GOSPEL” are contained in order in this verse (God--Only--Son—Perish—Eternal—Life).  John 3:16 is probably the most widely used Scripture used on signs at sporting events.  There are many other tidbits of trivia about John 3:16 with my favorite being the fact that the In-N-Out Burger chain prints John 3:16 on the inside of the bottom rim of their paper cups. 

John 3:16 is part of Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus’ question in v 9 related to being born again.  Being born again relates to entering the kingdom of God and having eternal life.  The key to all this is God’s initiative toward His creation and such initiative is based on love.  There’s no other motivation God had and has. 

This verse is also the key verse to explain how can sinful man relate and be accepted by a holy God.  The connection is God’s only begotten (the word means “unique”) Son.  When you think of the chasm that sin established between holy God and rebellious man, the only way that chasm can be connected is through the cross of Christ. 

This verse also emphasizes the role of faith.  Whoever “believes in Him” demonstrates faith in the love of God to save sinful man from being destroyed forever (perish) and instead will enjoy eternal life.  

A good exercise to try in your quiet time is to meditate on the meaning of the key words of this one verse:  God………loved…….world……gave….one and only…. Son…… believes in Him……perish…..eternal life.  Just meditating on each of these words will bring you into the presence of God and give you even deeper appreciation and awesomeness at what He did to save you from the consequences of your sinful nature. 

God so loves you no matter what you have done.  I don’t know who gets credit for originally writing this wonderful illustration:  You can take a $100 bill, crumple it, drop it to the ground and stomp on it, make it as dirty as possible, yet if you offered that bill to someone else, that someone would take it.  No matter what you did to that bill it is still worth $100, it never decreases in value.  So it is with your life in the eyes of God.  You can be dropped, crumpled, ground into the dirt, stomped on by decisions you make and circumstances that happen.  You can feel worthless and hopeless.  Yet no matter what happens, you never lose your value in God’s eyes.

Steven Curtis Chapman recorded a song entitled “Speechless”[1] and also wrote a book with his pastor, Scotty Smith, entitled Speechless: Living in Awe of God’s Disruptive Grace (Zondervan, 1999).  One of the quotes from his book, to me, describes John 3:16:  “In the gospel, we discover we are far worse off than we thought, and far more loved that we ever dreamed.” 

Do you clearly understand why this verse is the most read and most cited verse in the 31,000+ verses of the Bible?  How does it encourage and strengthen you right now?

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[1] http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/steven+curtis+chapman/speechless_20131499.html

Most Read Bible Verses---#2---Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11 (NCV)

“I know what I am planning for you”, declares the Lord, “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you.  I will give you hope and a good future.”

This is my wife’s, Midge, and many others' favorite life verse of the Bible.  When I delivered the homily at my daughter’s wedding in Seattle I had to work this into my message (and, of course, it’s a great verse to use in a wedding ceremony).

One problem with a verse like this is that it can be misused and taken out of context.  Some pastors preach the “prosperity Bible” and use this verse to prove their point.  

Jeremiah 29 is written to Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon (Iraq) by King Nebuchadnezzer.  Not all Israelites were exiled as Jeremiah was one who remained in Jerusalem.  False prophets in Babylon and Jerusalem were claiming that God would break the power of Nebuchadnezzer and send the captives back to Jerusalem very shortly and that they would prosper.  Jeremiah refuted this false teaching, telling them to try to live normal lives in Babylon.

The Hebrew word used for “good plans” in the NCV translation (“prosper’ in other translations) is the familiar word “shalom”.  Shalom means peace, not economic prosperity.  The connotation of this verse is that God plans for people living in Babylon to live in peace and have good relationships with one another and with Him.

How does this verse apply to you today?  It promises you that God has a purpose for you, that He wishes to draw you to Himself, to remain in close relationship with you.   Because of His love and concern for you, you do not need to fear or worry about anything because He plans for you a future and a hope.  His definition of shalom may be found in verses 12-14.  He promises His children that your trials have a purpose that will be found by seeking Him.  And even though these promises are written to exiles in Babylon, Christians can be viewed as exiles in this world.  I Peter 2:11 describes Christians as ‘aliens and strangers’ in this world so this verse applies to Christians just as much as it applied to Jewish exiles in Babylon. 

List what you believe right now are God’s plans for you that give you hope and a good future.  Applying the faith and works principle, what can you do to live and work alongside the Lord to enable you to have hope and a good future?  

 

Most Read Bible Verses---#3---Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 (LB)

And we know that all that happens to us is working for our own good if we love God and are fitting into His plans. 

In my modest preaching career, I have given a sermon perhaps 40 times.  Three of these times, at different churches, I have preached on this verse.  Why?  Because this verse provides a great principle of hope.  Especially when you are dealing with bad experiences, this verse promises and gives the Christian hope that God is at work to use those bad experiences for eventual good in your life.  Note that this Scripture emphasizes “All things”!  Indeed, for the Christian, “all” means all!  Every experience of life, good or bad, God is working for your eventual good!  For the experienced Christian person, as you reflect on your past life and how the Lord has worked during your times of crises, is there any question that this verse is not true?

 

You must love God in both the good and bad times.  Be honest, do you tend to resort to self-pity or discouragement or bitterness in the bad times?  This shows your human weakness.  These negative reactions cut you off from the resource you need most—knowing that God loves you and will help you.  God sends circumstances into your life that “sandpaper” you to be molded to the image of His Son (read Philippians 2:12-14).  Martyn Lloyd-Jones spent 208 pages in his classic publication on the Book of Romans focusing on Romans 8:28-30!  He called these three verses the most comforting statements in Scripture.  They reaffirm the fact that the Christian person was known by God prior to being born, was predestined to become conformed to the image of Christ, was and is called by God to give his/her life to Christ, was then justified (“no condemnation”) and will be glorified in the life to come. 

God changes and molds you by the pressure of His hand guiding all circumstances to enable the stature of your soul to conform more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. God is your potter: He uses every single revolving day like the potter uses the turning wheel, pressing you on all sides with His own expert fingers wet with your tears and grimed with the useless portions cut away from your life. No circumstance in your life, on any side, within or without, comes upon you by accident: it is all part of the plan of the Master Potter.  You are molded, you are pressed and shaped beyond your will, all for the Master Potter's glory, as a work of His inscrutable art. But in every turn of the wheel, with every pressure brought to bear on you, He is for you, not against you.

However, when reading the context of this verse (all of Romans 8) there is a limitation in this passage……these words apply only to Christians!  Only a Christian can claim this and other promises found especially in Romans 8:26-39.  I think that these 14 verses comprise the most encouraging passage in the entire Bible.  Read through these carefully and decide for yourself.