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Skip Heitzig: The Bible is God’s testimony. Ever heard a person give their testimony? This is who I am, this is what happened in my life, and this is how I came to Christ. The Bible is God’s testimony. It’s God’s revelation to humanity. It will tell you about Himself. And that testimony, notice the word is sure, means firm, certain, trustworthy, and reliable.

In fact, the word for sure in Hebrew is the word Aman, where we get the word Amen. Amen is a word of verbal agreement. It means it is so. I am in agreement with that. Amen. We should learn to say that more. It will make wise the simple. That’s what it will do. It will make wise the simple. When you think of a simple person, you might think of a naive person, sort of clueless, maybe easily led and very impressionable.

If you have that sort of a person and expose that person to the scriptures, it will challenge his or her mind, educate that person, and make them wise. The simplest person can be wise. But the idea here isn't just naive; the idea of this word simple is open-minded, open to instruction. Are you open-minded to instruction? Do you come to church with this posture of heart or with that posture of heart?

Some people reject the Bible. They are not open-minded to it. But I’ve made a little discovery over the years, because I was also in this camp at one time, that people don’t reject the Bible because it contradicts itself. They reject the Bible because it contradicts them. That’s a good place for an amen right there. Let’s try that again. People don’t reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them. Amen.

It will challenge the mind. Mark Twain used to say that the things that bother me the most in the Bible aren't the things I don’t understand. It’s all the things I do understand that bother me. It will transform your life. It will challenge your mind. Here is the third benefit: it will delight your heart. Verse eight begins, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." It brings joy.

Statutes could be translated as commandments, mandates, principles, or rules. That turns people off. As soon as people hear rules or commandments, they say they don't like rules. Do you really? Would you like it if there were no traffic laws? Some of you might drive like there are no traffic laws. But would you like it if everybody else around you on the road did not abide by any traffic laws at all? Or what about property laws or theft laws, like don't steal people's stuff?

We need laws for a stable society. So, the commandments, the statutes, the mandates, the divine principles, the rules of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. It brings joy to the heart. The psalmist of Psalm 19 is David. David also wrote Psalm 1, where he said blessed is the man who doesn't stand in the way of sinners, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. In His law, he will meditate day and night.

He also wrote Psalm 119, where he said, "I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure." And one of my all-time favorite verses I read just this week is Jeremiah 15:16: "Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." It brings joy to the heart.

I want to be fair here. Sometimes you read the Bible and it doesn’t bring joy because it confronts you. Have you ever read a text of scripture and thought, "Ouch, what does that mean exactly?" Maybe it means something different than I just thought it meant. It messes with you. It confronts you. And it hurts sometimes. But don’t shy away from it. Camp on it, learn it, because the results will be delightful. It will bring delight.

Remember when Jesus was on the road to Emmaus with two of His disciples? They didn’t know it was Jesus. He just cruised up next to them and started talking, and they didn’t know it was Him. It says, "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." What was He doing? He was giving them a Bible study through the scriptures.

A lot of people say that if they could just have 20 minutes alone with Jesus, they could have coffee together and ask Him questions. That would be awesome too. But if you do that, bring a Bible with you, because He’s going to tell you to turn in your Bible to Moses and all the prophets. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. And what was the result of that conversation with Jesus? Joy and delight. They said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us along the road?"

So, it will transform your life, challenge your mind, and delight your heart. Number four: it will clarify your vision. It will help you see. Scripture gives you light to see the path. The second part of verse eight says the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. A better translation is this: the commandment of the Lord shines clear and gives light to the eyes. Do you know that the Bible helps you navigate through a dark world? Put it another way: you can see in the dark when you know your Bible.

You can navigate through all the dark alleyways of our culture. You can see the path clearly and navigate it clearly. It will clarify your vision. Again, in Psalm 119, it says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light unto my path." The Bible will throw light on politics. It will throw light on dating, marriage, and money management. It won’t tell you how to change the oil in your car, but for everything that is important to your soul, it has something to say. I am amazed at how the scriptures help me make decisions and forge a decision because of the principles that are written in it.

By the way, you should know this: God is happy with His word. He wrote a book called the Bible, and He’s happy with it. There were no second editions from heaven and no edits. Nobody is up in heaven saying that we should have written more about that, or maybe we should have made this a little clearer. No, it’s clear, it’s pure, and it will enlighten the eyes. If you want to see clearly in life, expose yourself to the scriptures consistently.

I will give you a fifth benefit. It will stabilize your future. Look at verse nine: "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever." That is your future. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. There are six titles of the scripture: law, testimony, statutes, commandment. These are all synonyms for the scripture, the Bible. But the next one does not make sense: the fear of the Lord.

He is using the term fear as a synonym for scripture because he is describing the effect that it will produce. This is a literary device often employed where the effect is substituted for the cause. The scripture, which is the cause, produces the fear of the Lord, which is the effect. So he just reverses it and calls it the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord?

The fear of the Lord is a reverential awe that produces humble submission to a loving God. Why is it called fear? Because fear is a good thing. There is an element of being afraid. People say fear is such a bad emotion. I disagree. It’s one of the best things you can have. If you get stuck in your car on the railroad tracks and you see that engine heading your way, I hope you have fear, because it will save your life. You want to be in right relationship to that object coming at you.

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your support helps reach people every day with biblical truth that speaks into real life. And this month, we’d love to thank you for your gift with a meaningful resource designed to encourage restoration and connection in your home and family relationships. When you give today, you’ll receive Reconnecting with Family, a powerful book from Pastor Skip that addresses the pressures families face today and offers practical, scripture-based guidance for navigating life together with grace, wisdom, and hope. Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people and families to God’s unchanging truth. Request Reconnecting with Family when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here’s more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: One of the first emotions a child should learn is to fear mom and dad. When they are crossing the street and they are in danger and you shout stop, they respect and regard your word enough to obey. It will save their life. They fear your word. So the fear of the Lord is a synonym for scripture. God’s truth, therefore, is clean truth. The fear of the Lord is clean, verse nine tells us. Because it’s clean, that is without error and without deficiency, it will endure forever.

It will be there in the future. It will last forever. Isaiah wrote that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say unto you, heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away." What that means is this: the truth that got you through yesterday is the truth that will be available for you tomorrow.

The Bible will stabilize your future, especially if you memorize certain verses. I’ve been in situations where it’s grave, it’s intense, I have an incredible need, and suddenly a verse pops into my mind. I’m glad I memorized that. I can pull it out and use it. When the phone rings in the middle of the night and you get a bad report, when you go to the doctor and you get a bad diagnosis, when you lose your job, what stabilizes you is God’s truth. It will stabilize your future.

So it will transform your life, challenge your mind, delight your heart, clarify your vision, and stabilize your future. I’m going to give you one more, and then I’m going to give you a few tips. It will guard your steps. The end of verse nine says, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Then he explains himself: "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward."

What are we warned of? We are warned of the harmful effects of sin, for one. That’s something the world lies to you about. The world will not tell you the truth. The world will say go ahead and do this, have that, it will make you feel better. It lies to you, just like Satan lied to Eve in the garden and said, "You will not surely die." And they did die.

It will warn you from the harmful effects of sin. John Bunyan put it this way: "This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book." David wrote, "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." All of these benefits is why David treasured it. All of these benefits is why David said more to be desired are they than gold. He treasured it.

There is a difference between hearing, reading, and receiving and treasuring something. When you get your mail and there is junk mail, do you treasure it? Do you save it? All the bills you get, do you look at them and say you love them? You don't treasure it; you pay it and then you throw it away. But when you get cards of appreciation, I have several cards that I have kept over the years. The love letters that my wife and I wrote before we were married, I have kept. I treasure those, which is very different than just receiving them.

Jesus said, "Where a man’s treasure is, there his heart will be also." You say you get all this and agree with it. It’s perfect, good, right, and clean. You still have trouble doing it. Let me give you a few helpful hints. Number one: pray. You might not feel like reading the Bible. I get that. But just pray this: "God, give me a desire." Give me a desire to read your word. The Bible says God will give you the desires of your heart. Ask Him to give you a desire in your heart to read His word.

And then pray when you find something confusing, and you’ll find it very quickly. Old cultural elements, words used, poetry employed, and when you don’t understand it, pray again. Help me understand what I’m reading. That’s where you begin. Again, David did that. "Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things from your word." That’s a prayer I pray every week, every time I open the book.

Number two: just begin. Just start somewhere. It’s hard to read the Bible when I don’t feel like it. Welcome to life on earth. You go to work and you don’t feel like it. You change diapers when you don’t feel like it. There’s a lot of things you do that you don’t feel like doing, like paying bills, going to a dentist, or doing laundry. That’s life on earth. So just begin.

Let me give you three quick words: discipline, desire, delight. Begin with discipline. Just do it. Do it again and again. Athletes do it all the time. Eventually, it becomes so locked into your spiritual muscle memory that you desire it. And eventually, you can’t live without it. You’ll delight in it. One woman wrote that she had no desire to read the Bible. She did desire to know and love God more. Deep down, she didn’t even know who God was. She was basing her beliefs entirely on what people had told her about Him.

When she realized that, it terrified her. She didn’t read it. She didn’t know what it said. She just listened to what others said it said. So she was having a conversation with her brother. Her brother said she ought to read her Bible. She said she couldn't and she didn't want to. It didn't feel right. He said it’s not about her. Do you love God? She said she loved Him. Then do it because you love Him and you want to obey Him.

So she wrote this: "I opened it out of love and obedience instead of obligation. I opened it with the determination, and most importantly, I opened it with God’s help. It took me 30 years and a little soul-searching to finally wake up and realize that what I was searching for was right in front of me. My life and relationship with Christ has been completely transformed as a result." That can be your experience.

Pray. Just begin. Number three: have a plan. You say why don’t you give us a Bible reading plan? Go on the internet. There will be 20,000 that will come up like that. They’re all over the place. Find one that looks best for you and get a plan. It will give you a roadmap. It helps you engage consistently in the scripture. Jesus had a routine. He got up early in the morning, a great while before the day, and He spent time communing with His Father. You might not be a morning person, but have a plan.

Number four, and this is really basic: get a Bible. I have a Bible; it’s on my phone. No, get a Bible. Get a Bible so you know if it’s on the left page or the right page when you find something. At the top or at the bottom? I can underline it; I can write a note in it. Get a Bible you understand. There are so many versions. Open three or four of them and read a section that you know in each one and see which speaks to your heart.

Fifth and finally: read it with someone else. Read and discuss the Bible in community, in groups. Quiet time is awesome. We should all have one, our own personal private time. But I will tell you this: you will grow exponentially when you discuss the scripture with someone else. In a group, you are hearing how other people apply it or misapply it. Either way, you’ll grow through that. If you found it hard to read the Bible on your own, don’t do it on your own. Do it with somebody else.

By the way, if you have a hard time reading for medical reasons or whatever, there are apps you can get where the Bible will be narrated to you. I have gone through the Bible that way before and found it very enjoyable. Before the printing press, before there were personal apps and before there was YouTube, Christians would get together. There would be one scroll or one book, and it was read by one person, and the people listened to it.

What if we were to treat our Bibles like we treat our phones? I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but just what if? What if when we got up in the morning, this is what we looked at first? When we went to bed at night, instead of scrolling through different pages, we looked at this. What if during the day several times we picked this up? What if we left home without it and we panicked? I’ve got to go back and get my Bible. What if we opened it to get the text of scripture? God sending me a text.

Guest (Male): We’re so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, here’s a reminder. When you give at least $50 this month, we’ll send you Reconnecting with Family as our thanks. It’s a powerful new resource from Pastor Skip that offers biblical wisdom and encouragement for navigating real-life family challenges with faith and grace. Your support helps keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people and families to God’s word. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your April resource. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.