–Ken Pratt (The Gypsum Creek Massacre)

       “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
                    –Matthew 6:23(NKJV)
—————————-
               “Be careful little eyes what you see….
               Be careful little ears what you hear…
               For there’s a Father up above
               Looking down in tender love…”
                    –unknown

Perhaps you remember the little songs from your early Sunday School days.  Oh we may laugh and grin about it now, but there is strong biblical truth in it.  Let’s look at Proverbs 4:20-22 this morning.

          20 — My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
          21 — Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart;
          22 — For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.  (NKJV)
(ESV)
          21 — Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
          22 — For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

I used to tell students that there are two easy ways to get me mad at them.  One was their friendships, the other was their music.  “Oh be careful little ears what you hear.”  Warren Wiersbe says that, “what enters my ears will ultimately influence my mind, my heart and my decisions, therefore we need to be careful what we listen to.”  This not only includes music, but also what teachers we come under the influence of and their ideologies, the conversations of those around us.  Remember the words of Paul, [let is not be named] “neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” (Ephesians 5:3, NKJV)  Do you hear foolishness coming from your friends or even worse, filthiness coming from their mouths or talking the Lord’s name in vain?  Or do you hear words of thankfulness and gratefulness?  Hmmm, time for some inventory.  
     Notice that there is something we must do in these verses–we must keep them, and that implies work.  If we listen to all the voices around us how will we be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit?  Keeping the eyes and the ears are ways to keep the heart.  They help protect the heart.  “If the heart is healthy, the benefit is felt to the extremities of the body; if it is diseased, the whole physical frame suffers.” (Flores)  Matthew tells us that “The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.” (6:22, NKJV)  
     How can we follow the instructions of the Bible, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart”,(Deuteronomy 6:6, NKJV) if we do not give attention, hold onto, and keep the words of the Lord?  J. Vernon McGee tells us that “God’s words are the words of life.”  They are living words; words that will guide us through this life and into eternity.  We are to diligently keep them, or as Matthew Henry states, “study the methods of duty.”  
     Who do you listen to?  “Has God indeed said…?” (Genesis 3:1, NKJV) comes the words of Satan to try and deceive you as he did with Eve.  “Do you really believe this stuff?” he questions you.  “Your dad and mom are fuddy-duddies, this is a new progressive age.  They are just old-fashioned,” comes his snide, sly words.  Do you listen or do you have the Word of God in your heart?  The devil came to Jesus with the same words, “has God said…”  Listen, as the old preacher F.B. Meyer said, “If you think right, you will live right.”  Listen to the instruction, the true instruction of the word of God and be careful to what you listen to and what you see.  It is imperative to your life on this earth, but more importantly it will affect your eternal destination.
     Keep the Word in front of you continually.  Matthew Henry gives some good advice, “As the spiritual life was begun by the word as the instrument of it, so by the same word it is still nourished and maintained; we could not live without it, we may by faith live upon it.”  The Word in our heart brings faith, and by grace through faith are we saved.  Now we are continually nourished by this same Word; we become discipled by this Word.  As the heart pumps life into the body, so the Word hidden in our hearts pumps spiritual life into our souls.

                    –Psalm 100:5 (ESV)
—————————–
          God is good!  –“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His faithfulness is everlasting.” (1 Chronicles 16:34, NASB)
     This is probably the most important date in my life.  I purposely used the term, “date” for several reasons.  First of all, this date is the date my life changed drastically.  Of course I realize that my birthday is an important date, because without that date, today, June 11, could not have happened.  This day, fifty-fours years ago, Annie and I tied the knot.  When the preacher, Annie’s brother Jon, pronounced that we were man and wife my life completely changed!  It wasn’t a slip-knot, nor a hangman’s noose, but the knot has held through the many years of marriage.  As I used a verse from Ecclesiastes, a triple-braided cord is not easily broken (4:12), Annie and I believe that is the case in our marriage.  She with her faith, me, with I hope my guidance, and then we add the third cord–the Holy Spirit.
     Some may disagree with this being the most important day.  They might say the day I was born-again is the most important.  That would be true, and that is why I used the term “date” rather than “day.”  I was raised in Sunday School and the church, my Grandma and Aunt made sure I knew the Bible stories and learned Bible verses, therefore it is hard for me to pinpoint one day.  I do remember that it was when I was nine years old during Vacation Bible School that I made an open, public confession of the Lord.  
     It was this day, for the better, that I was a changed man.  Many things changed, for one I was no longer a fast driver.  I realized that with my life I now had many various other responsibilities and a wreck and/or death would be disastrous.  There were other things along this line that I had to change.  Later, because of an injury and back surgery I refrained from sports and other similar activities because, in reality, the injury was harder on my wife than it was on me.  Yes, I was in pain, but she had to dress and undress me, drive everywhere, change the method of eating and location.  It was hard on her, therefore I didn’t want to put her through that again.  For better or worse.  So, see, the Lord was so good to me as He gave me a wonderful partner in life.  Plus, as Ken Pratt says, “How a woman could make something as simple as a piece of pie taste so good was beyond him.”
          God is good! –“…No one is good but One—God.” (Mark 10:18, HCSB)
     Besides being good to me by giving me a wonderful wife, God has also granted me ten years since my heart attack.  It was ten years ago this last Sunday that I rode in an ambulance to the hospital.  I had, what felt like a fist slam into my chest.  Annie and I were planning on driving to Maryland the next day when it happened.  The doctor said it was a good thing I came to the hospital for I would not have survived had it happened on the highway.  I had a 100% blockage.  
     Between a good doctor and the good Lord, they fixed me up; at least good enough for ten years.  I leave the rest in the Lord’s hands.  How long do I have left, I don’t worry or fret over that, all is well and in the hands of a good God.  So I am grateful to Him for this ten-year anniversary.
       God is good! –“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8, NKJV)
     Forgive me for being personal in this morning‘s devotion.  I don’t do it often, and I reckon since I am writing it, I can write about myself once in a while.  I recently turned seventy-five, another anniversary of sorts.  For the Lord has added five years to my allotted time on earth.  We read in Psalms, “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty…” (90:10, NLT)  Pappy, Annie’s Dad, lived until he was 96, so he was granted many years beyond the allotted seventy.  I wonder, as he did, what the Lord has for me in the years to come, whether they be few or many.  My service to the Lord has certainly had to change.  I am no longer as mobile, agile, or hostile (?) as I once was, and am more on the fragile side.  I try to study, write and for sure do more praying to keep some sort of ministry going to others and to myself.  I don’t worry about tomorrow, I learned way back in my childhood days to trust in the Lord.  Throughout my life, in troubles, failures, victories, celebrations that I never lost my trust in Him.
     Listen, if you didn’t get anything from this devotion this morning I hope you were able to grasp hold of this — The Lord sure is good!

       “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.'”
                    –Revelation 5:9 (ESV)
————————-
What type of song do you sing?  What melody is in your heart?  That’s where I keep most of mine for to hear me sing would be like the sweet sound of a cat who has just had her tail squished over by a rocking chair.  F.B. Meyer states that, “new songs are demanded by new mercies.  Let us give God freshly broken loaves for His table.”  I like that.  As God gives us new mercies and new blessings we should be singing songs about those.  That’s what David is doing in Psalm 144, read it with this in mind, a new song makes sure that our praise doesn’t grow stale. (Wood)

          9 — I will sing a new song to You, O God; on a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
        10 — The One who gives salvation to kings, who delivers David His servant from the deadly sword.
        11 — Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood–
        12 — That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as pillars, sculptured in palace style;
        13 — That our barns may be full, supplying all kinds of produce; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
        14 — That our oxen may be well laden; that there be no breaking in or going out; that there be no outcry in our streets.
        15 — Happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the LORD!  (NKJV)

     Praise is an act of the will.  It is something that we do, not something that just happens.  Here we see David singing a new praise, or a new song expressing his confidence and trust in the Lord.  Look at what his song entails.  First of all there is the praise of victory because of his trust in God.  He will deliver us from the pestilence and the sword of our enemy, whatever form that may take.  Then we see that he is dependent upon the Lord.  Our praise should include our daily dependence on the Lord not only for the great victories, but for every blessing that comes our way.  Praise, then, should be continually on our lips, or at least in our hearts.
     Look at what David brings before the Lord.  He begins with family.  He hits on a key point and that is nurturing.  Children are not to be left alone, or to let media nurture them.  It is the job, duty, and obligation of the parents.  This is a battle for the State wants complete control over the children.  If you do not believe that look at the school curriculums.  Second, he brings up finances.  How will you make it through the day, how will you pay your bills?  The Lord will supply.  Look at the words of Paul, “…as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” (2 Corinthians 6:10, NKJV)  Our hope, our trust, our faith is in the Lord–He is the One who will supply all our needs.
     Lastly he brings out the idea of security.  We live in a crazy, confused, and evil world.  Where is our safety?  It is in the arms of the Lord.  He is our Protector.  We have a calm assurance that He will protect and provide.  And I might mention that we should have our minds protected as well.  There is an onslaught of thinking out there that wants control of your thoughts.  Let the Holy Spirit guard your mind and that means you must get into the Word of God.  I like the way the NLT translates verse 15, “Yes, happy are those who have it like this!  Happy indeed are those who God is the LORD.”
     If you hear a bellowing, don’t worry; it’s not a buffalo groaning.  It my new song, a song of joy, blessing, and trust in the Lord.  Why it might even cause me to “clog in the kitchen” or at least “shuffle in the hallway.”  The Lord is good!  Sing about that, if you will!  We have a hope in Him.

               “We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,
               But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand;
               He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
               The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.
               All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;
               Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.”
                           –Matthias Claudius