♪ Now in a song of grateful praise
♪ ♪ To Christ our Lord our God so brave ♪ ♪ With all the saints
have joined to tell ♪ ♪ My Jesus has come on high ♪ How far and wonderful and free! And if you want to think of me,
He brought me from the jaws of hell. My Jesus has an awful smell. I've burned his grace, I've broke
his laws, and yet he undertook my cause. To bend the law I did
rebel. My Jesus has done awful swell. So many a fiery flame you dart,
Attempt to murder that my heart, Repent, for all his rage retell,
Why Jesus has done all things well. And when to that bright
world I rise, And joy merges in the skies, The borderless,
this note shall swell, My Jesus has done all things well. Thank you. We make a few announcements
before we begin. Remember dinner here at the church
Saturday seven o'clock seven o'clock that all right all right
seven o'clock Saturday evening so that everyone will have plenty
of time. And then we'll be taking up another. special offering for the Weimars,
Brother Ken Weimars' ministry this Sunday. So set aside a few
dollars for him, or a whole lot of dollars if you have them.
And then I have a surprise for you. Next Wednesday night, my
pastor, who happens to be my father, will be preaching here. We'll make a note of that next
Wednesday night. They're going to visit with us.
They're going to come in Monday, visit a few days with us. So
turn back to Psalm 119 with me. Psalm 119. The title of this
message is, excuse me, is Walking in the Word, Walking in the word. Now, it's a pitiable state that
a believer gets into at times. Worry, fear, anxiety, depression,
confusion, despair, loneliness, all of these things beset and
seemingly at times overcome the believer just like everyone else.
And he or she is left to cry out, why? Why is this happening? And while this one disbeliever
is to be pitied for being in that condition, yet he or she
is also to be blamed. I'll illustrate that. It's kind
of like a child who gets hurt or into some kind of trouble
after being warned continuously by its parent about the certain
thing. But it goes on and gets into
the trouble or gets hurt anyway. You feel sorry for them and you
will comfort them, but they're still at fault for not listening
to their parent, for not obeying the voice of their parent. And
with that in mind, you see, we have the very mind of God Almighty
before us. We have the very secrets of the
universe. We have the story from beginning
to end. We have the last chapter in the
book. We know the end. It's right before
us. The answer to everything. So
if we don't use it, then we're to be blamed for getting into
these these conditions. But he remembers our frame. He
knows that we're dust and he has pity upon us. I'm glad that
we're still at fault. We're still at fault. Now, you
know what I'm talking about when I say the answer is right before
us, I'm talking about the word. I'll illustrate that again in
the book Pilgrim's Progress, which I love very much. Christian and his companion,
named Hopeful, were walking along their journey to the Celestial
City, and they were walking in the way that they had been instructed
to walk, which was at times an uncomfortable way. Nevertheless,
it was the straight way. At times, it was the narrow way.
Nevertheless, it was the only way to get to the Celestial City. And they grew tired of this way
at one time. And they passed by another way,
and looking over it looked more pleasant to their eyes, it looked
more comfortable, it looked easier to go that way. So they yielded
to their own understanding, their own flesh, and went in that way,
and started walking upon that way. But, finally, That way led
them into trouble, into confusion, and it was a much harder way
than the right way that they'd previously thought was difficult.
And they eventually got into all sorts of trouble and confusion,
so they tried to get back. And the going back to the right
way was much harder than ever. It was much more difficult than
ever. And eventually they grew tired
and they grew weary until finally they fell asleep. They fell asleep. And when they awoke, they found
themselves in the clutches of a giant named despair. They found themselves in despair. And this giant promptly took
them and cast them into a castle called Doubting Castle. So here they were, Christian
and hopeful, in this castle of doubt. Dark as a dark dungeon,
full of doubt, in doubt, filled with despair, in the grips of
despair. They were thrown into this castle,
and they stayed a long time there, forever, they thought, a long
time. But, one Saturday night, the
story goes, they began to pray, and they continued in prayer
for a long time, until, in the wee hours of the morning, Christian
kind of awoke as if in a dream, a dream too good to be true.
And he exclaimed, he remarked out loud, he said, wait a minute,
what a fool I've been. And he reached down in his shirt
pocket and he says, I have a key right here to get out of the
door. I have a key, I've had it around
my neck, right next to my heart the whole time. It's a key to
get out of this doubting castle, out of the grips of despair. It's called a key of promise. And hopefuls said, well, try
it on the door, brother. So he did. And they flew right
out of that place. The door opened wide, a key called
promise, which is the word of God. And they tried it on the
door and they both went out, set free and got back real fast
on that right way and didn't Go to the right or left after
that. And if you're a child of God, you have the word of promise
right in your heart. The word is nigh you, Christ
said, even in your mouth. It's right there. Use it. Use
it. So look here at Psalm 119, and
this is what this psalm is speaking of, walking in the word of God. Look at Psalm 119, verse 1. The psalmist, David, says, blessed
or happy. The word of God uses this term
many, many times. And it's speaking of happiness
or being blessed by God with true happiness. And he says here,
blessed or happy are the undefiled in the way. Do you have a center
reference there beside that word undefiled? If you do, it would
read this perfect or sincere. I like that word sincere. We'll see how that this cannot
strictly mean undefiled, but rather sincere, blessed or happy
or the sincere in the way. I like the way that reads happy,
content, rejoicing. Are those that are sincere in
the way? What way? There's only one way. That's Christ. Christ said, I
am the way. I am that straight gate, that
narrow way. There's only one way of real
happiness. There's only one way to life,
to eternal life, one way to approach the living God, and that is through
Christ and happy, truly blessed by God Almighty. is that man,
that woman, that young person who is in that way, who is in
Christ, who is seeking to know God through Christ. And the truly
God-blessed man or woman, the truly happy, contented, rejoicing
one is a sincere seeker of Christ. That's important here. That word
qualifies this whole thing, as far as I'm concerned. in the way. Now, there's no real
peace, joy, or contentment except that which comes from knowing
Christ. Those that truly know him know
what I'm talking about. You who have tasted and seen
that the Lord indeed is gracious and that there is indeed contentment
and peace and joy in knowing Christ, in truth. walking with
him, and there's no misery quite like religious hypocrisy. And those that have been in that
route, or may be in it now, you know what I'm talking about.
There's no misery like religious hypocrisy, or in other words,
half-hearted discipleship, trying to cling to two masters, if you
will. I'll give you an example, two
examples, two young ladies. who were wives of husbands, and
they both seemed to be believers at one time. But after a while,
they left their husbands, left their families to go into all
sorts of—I know these girls well—to go into all sorts of—just completely
left the gospel. And what it was, both of them
readily admitted after being confronted, they readily admitted
that they were just tired of playing the game. And it is,
it's bondage, it's misery, trying to act apart. Religious hypocrisy
is bondage, misery, half-hearted discipleship. But blessed, truly
happy are the sincere seekers after Christ, who are really
seeking to know Christ. Look at this, the last part of
verse 1. Who walk in the law of the Lord,
the word of the Lord. Who walk, the sincere seekers,
followers after Christ, who walk in the law of the Lord. This
is, they are without exception. All those who are truly seeking
Christ are walking in his commandments. They're walking in his word.
Throughout the scriptures, the Word of God is referred to as
the law, as statutes, as commandments, as precepts, as testimonies,
as judgments, among other things. To walk in the Word—what is it? What is it to walk in the Word
of God? Well, throughout the scriptures,
the walk refers to just that—our walk. through this life, our
walk, our everyday deportment or conduct. That's exactly what
it's speaking of there. So to walk in God's Word is to
live and move and have our very being, our everyday life or living,
continually under the influence of God's Word. That is, on every
hand, whatever you run across, whatever circumstances you you
get in, whatever you deal with, whoever you deal with, something
in God's Word comes to mind. Something is related to your
mind, to your heart, through God's Word. That's what it is
to have this Word, to walk in this Word. It is to think on
these things. It is to have your affection
set on things above. That's what it is. It is whether
we eat or drink or whatever we do, all is done in reflection
of the Word of God, of our relationship with Christ. I've written an article for this
Sunday. I was—I bought me a piece of
land, had to go see about it. Not on the Lord's Day, though,
but I had to go see about it. And I was down there marking
trees off. for to save the trees that. The trees that I wanted to save
I marked with a red ribbon and the ones I didn't I didn't mark
at all and they were to be cut down by the by the axman and
that whole time that I was in the woods marking those trees,
I had such a delightful time. The whole picture of salvation,
the gospel, was running clearly through my mind, and illustration
after illustration was coming to my mind and my heart while
I was walking through marking those trees. You see, that's
the whole story of salvation. Uh, this world, you know, the
blind man, after he was partially healed, what'd he say? He said,
I see men as trees. He said, I see men as trees walking. This whole world is a forest.
It's nothing good. It's not good for anything, but
it's fit for the burning is what it is. Everybody in it. But God,
according to his mercy and grace has chosen a few trees, a few
people, and he marked them with the blood of Christ. And he told
the death angel, when I see the blood. Then I'll pass over them. But the rest of them, I'll cut
them down and burn them in my fire. And you know, I was walking
through there, and I was marking different trees. Sometimes I'd
come to a large clump of trees, where there'd be five or six
trees together. And some of them looked pretty good, and some
of them looked pretty bad. Pretty skinny. And there was times when
I would mark the worst looking one in the bunch just because
I wanted to. Because this whole thing was
going through my mind. The whole thing of salvation. But I'd mark
the worst tree in the bunch. And I would say, I'm going to
cut the rest of them down. It's a mine. I'll do what I want
to do with them. And I'd go and I'd find one that was deformed.
I'd find one that was sickly and I'd save him. I'd put a ribbon
on him. Save him. It was up to my discretion. And that's the whole picture
of salvation. But that's what it is to whatever you come across
in this life. The whole world is an illustration
of our relationship with God. And it's all right here. There's
a story concerning everything we run across in this book. And,
you know, to walk in the law or the word of the Lord, you
must be in total agreement with it. Hosea Amos 3.3 says, Can
two walk together except they be agreed? So you can't walk
in the Word of God unless you're in total agreement with it. You
can't think on these things. You can't be influenced totally
by it unless you're in total agreement with it. If there's
some question in your mind regarding anything in there, some doubt,
some unbelief regarding anything, you're not going to walk in it.
It stands to reason that you must be in agreement with the
Word to agreeably walk in it. Well, the true, mature, sincere
disciple of Christ says this, whatever God says in his Word,
I believe. Whatever he says, I believe,
and that's the way I want it. And whatever he tells me, that's
what I want to believe, that's the way I want to act, that's
the way I want to talk, that's the way I want to walk, that's
the way I want to think. Whatever God says, that's the way I want
it. That's it. I want to walk with God. I want
to walk like Christ. That's what it is to walk in
the Word of God. And happy and blessed, blessed
by God, revealed. God has revealed himself to that
person. Blessed that person, blessed
and happy is that person who makes, who walks under the influence
of the word of God. Look at verse 2. Blessed or happy
are they that keep his testimonies. Happy, content are they that
keep his testimonies. Now the testimony of God is the
gospel concerning his son. That's the testimony of God.
That's what God has to say to this world. This is my son and
whom I'm well pleased. Hear him. God spoke in different
ways in times past under the fathers by the prophet. But if
he hath in these last days spoken unto us by son and that son is
the incarnate word and the written word of God. So he speaks through
this word, and the testimony of God is the gospel concerning
his son. And to keep that testimony is
to do nothing else but believe it. Trust in it. Believe it. Trust your soul to the safekeeping
of Christ. That's what it is to keep the
testimony. to look to him and him alone
for the salvation and the preservation of your soul. That's what it
is to keep, it's to hang on to, it's to cling to with tenacity,
with conviction, knowing whom you have believed, and persuaded,
fully persuaded that he's able to keep that which you have committed
unto him against that day. And when you keep something,
That means to retain it for future use, for present and future use. You remember it when you keep
something, you store it away, you remember it, you recall it,
you dig it back out, you hold on to it, and you don't let it
get away. When you want to keep something,
you keep an eye on it, in other words. A better word here is
to guard or protect, to guard or protect. As one has found
a precious treasure, a pearl of great price. That's what it
is to keep, is to hold on to. And it's certain that none, as
I said in the beginning, it's certain that none, no one can
keep fully or perfectly keep the commandments of God. There's
no one truly undefiled in and of themselves. So this must mean
something else. This must mean to hold on to
or to be sincere and so forth. But there is a sense in which
we have kept. There's a great sense. There's
a saving sense in which we have kept the Word of God perfectly,
in which we are totally, completely undefiled in Christ. He did all
these things for us, you see. He is undefiled and we are in
Him. Therefore, the Father looks upon us as being undefiled, spotless,
without blame. And we keep his word in Christ.
We keep his commandments perfectly in Christ. And we are kept by
the power of God unto salvation. And an evidence of this keeping
of God is a keeping of the word of God by us. Turn over to John
14 with me. John chapter 14, our Savior speaks
of this in clearer terms. In John 14, he plainly speaks
of keeping his word, holding on to, drawing from his word. Verse 15 of John 14. Our Lord
says, If you love me, then you will keep or hold on to, recall,
reflect upon my words. And I will pray to the Father.
You see, that seems kind of conditional there, doesn't it? And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another." I just noticed
that today when I was reading that. He will give you another
comforter. In other words, his Word is a
comfort to us. His Word is a great comforter
to us, and his Holy Spirit is another comforter. All the Holy Spirit does is take
the things of Christ and show them to you. All he does is arrest
your attention to point you back to this. That's what the Holy
Spirit does. And he says, I'll pray the Father, if you hold
on to, with tenacity, if you seek to know me through my word,
keeping my word, I'll pray the Father and he'll give you a comforter,
another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive. Why? They're not looking into
this book. They're not concerned with the Word. Whom the world
cannot receive because it sees him not. Doesn't see him in the
Word. Neither knows him. Doesn't know
him through the Word. But you know him, for he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you, the incarnate
Word, through the written Word. Yet a little while, and the world
seeth me no more. But you see me. How? Right here. Right here. Because I live, you shall live
also. The psalmist says continually,
quicken thou me. How? According to thy word. Because I live. How? Through
these pages. It's inseparable. That's what
I'm trying to impress upon us. You shall live also at that day,
now listen, continue with me, verse 20, at that day you shall
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He that has my commandments,
my word, and keeps them, holds on to them, he it is that loveth
me. And he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and this blessed promise
will manifest myself to him in close communion Walking with
the Lord how do you walk with God right here? Right here in
the light of his word. It's a lighter to your path Judas
said unto him not as scary verse 22 Well, Lord, how is it that
thou wilt manifest? Manifest thyself unto us and
not unto the world Jesus answered and said unto him if a man loved
me he'll keep my words and And my Father will love him, and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him." How? Through
the Word written, planted, established in your heart. You have no regard
for this? Forget all these promises. Just
forget it. All the promises are according
to the Word, you see. He that loveth me not, verse
24, keepeth not my sins. Plain as that. Simple as that,
isn't it? Blessed are they, blessed are they that keep his testimonies.
Look at the second part of verse two. And blessed are they, verse
two, that seek him, they seek Christ, they seek God with the
whole heart. The whole heart. Personal knowledge,
personal love. Personal communion with Christ
is the longing of all those that really know Him. Personal communion,
personal walk, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is
the true longing of all those that really know Him. Those that
don't are taken up with all manner of things, not with Him, not
with knowing Him. Oh, that I might win A greater
knowledge of the doctrines of grace. Oh, no. Oh, that I might
win Christ and be found knowing the word of truth. No, knowing
Him. Be found in Him. To know the love of Christ which
passes mere head knowledge. Passes here and goes to here.
A personal walk with a real loving, real living Lord. Every true
disciple must long for that. He's all those that have true
saving faith, real saving faith, are wholehearted disciples. Listen
to me. Bear with me. Stay with me. That's
a 60 minute tape, by the way. That wasn't 45. Real saving faith
is whole hearted, whole hearted discipleship. Do you count everything
as worthless done? that you might win Christ. Do
you forget those things which are past and press forward to
know Christ, to win Him? That's heart seeking Him, whole
heart. Like I've said before, one foot
over the fence is not being over the fence. One foot in the water
is not swimming. It's diving in, like Peter when
he got out of that boat. Christ said, come to me. He just
stepped his foot out there and then test the water is too cold.
Oh, he got out of that boat. Well, he, you know, he went,
he started sinking after a while, but nevertheless, he got out
of that boat and went to Christ. Verse three, wholehearted, wholehearted. They also, these blessed people,
they also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. The true
child of God, the real disciple of Christ, is holy in Christ. He's holy, he's spotless, he
has the spotless life of Christ imputed to his account by God
Almighty. He has that perfect righteousness
stamped upon him that God sees him as holy, doing no iniquity. That does no damage whatsoever
to this text because it all speaks of Christ. They who believe in,
trust in, and cling to Christ and his way are accepted by God,
accepted in the beloved. And though, and, I didn't mean
to say though, but and, the true disciple of Christ is beyond
reproach in this life. He looks, he walks, he talks,
he acts like Christ in this life. He is the salt of the earth.
He is the salt of the earth. Those that see him will take
note that he has been with Christ. This is not infallible because
they told Christ he had a devil. So it's not infallible. Certainly
not. And they'll tell you that for your doctrine's sake. But
the true believer is the finest, true believers are the finest
people on the face of the earth. I know it's so. I'm looking at
them, the finest people on the job, the finest people in the
community, true believers. They don't practice iniquity.
They walk in his ways, looking to him. Look at verse four. Thou
has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Now, the
scripture says his commandments are not grievous. Christ said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke is easy. My burden
is light. He wouldn't give us something
that we were incapable of doing, would he? He's not a hard taskmaster,
not at all. His commandments are not grievous.
The religious world thinks that Christ's doctrine is hard. They
think this thing of imputed righteousness, of being justified by faith without
works, is hard doctrine. Would someone explain that to
me? Would you explain to me why they think this is hard? Hard
doctrine. It's ironic to me that men and
women reject the easy way, I mean the way of rest, and insist upon
building their towers of Babel. Explain that to me. No, we don't
want Christ to do it all for us. We want to do it ourselves.
Do the impossible. Would someone explain that to
me? And they call this hard doctrine. Hey, Rick, that ain't hard, is
it? Lay down and rest. Christ will do it for you. That's
what His commandments are, and they're not grievous. Just follow
me like a little child. Just trust me. I'll do it for
you. I'll take care of it. Rest in
Him. Trust in Him. Cease from your labors. But men
say, We will not. We'd rather go the hard way. And they'd end up not getting
there. Well, for the believer, his commandments
are not grievous in that there's nothing hard about following
Christ, for everything he tells us is right and is good and is
what's best for us. We may not be able to explain
it like a little child. We can't always understand what
he commands or what he brings to pass in our life. But simple
obedience, simple trust in, belief in, his word. His providence, His goodness,
His mercy will render great benefits, if not now, later on. Mark it
down. You have His word upon that.
Simple, childlike. I don't understand this, Lord,
what you're doing here. But nevertheless, I believe you're
doing what's right. So I'm just going to leave it
at that. You're going to still be troubled
by these things, but later on, sometime down the road, You're
going to look back and say, oh, he did what was best for me. Oh, I'm thankful for that. We
may not in this life find out, but later on, I look forward
to the day when we can walk with him and he's going to show us.
I believe truly that he's going to walk with us individually
and rehash some things in our life that he's done for us. Look
what I've done for you. We're just going to praise him
to high heaven. Look at verse five. Oh, that my ways were directed
to keep thy word. This is a true prayer of every
true disciple. Make me an obedient child. Oh,
that my ways were directed to keep thy word. I've got Psalm
119, 133 pasted in the front of my Bible. Order my steps in
your word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Order
me in your word. Make me like Christ is a true
prayer of every disciple. If it's not, they're not a disciple.
They're not a child. Every child wants to emulate
its parent. For love's sake. Verse 6. Then, if you direct
my ways to keep your word, then shall I not be ashamed when I
have respect unto all thy commandments. When I'm under the influence
of your word, if I was like Christ, then I should never really be
ashamed. Not finally in the day of judgment. I won't be standing
there like those people that say, but we've done this. We've
done that. And he's going to show the bright light of his
glory and those wicked works up against that bright light.
And they're going to be ashamed of themselves. They're going
to hide their faces in shame for the very words that came
out of their mouth. We've done it. Oh, we won't be finally ashamed
in that day if we hang on to Christ. And we'll not be ashamed
here on this earth when persecutions, when trials, when afflictions
arise. We won't utterly fall, but we'll be standing on the
promises. People say, you must have something there. He's not
crying like a baby. The word says, hope makes not
ashamed. That is real belief, trust, and
confidence in Christ as the anchor of the soul. that keeps us from
drifting or being tossed about with every wind of doctrine and
finally overturned, shipwreck of the faith. Verse 7, I'll hurry. I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgment. See how
everything is pending on his word? I will praise you with
uprightness, sincerity, truth of heart when I have learned
your righteous judgments. I will really and truly know
how to worship God and be able to sincerely from the heart rejoice
in Christ Jesus when I rest in and truly believe in and trust
in and have my standing upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, my salvation, when my soul has been purged from dead
works. cleansed, washed in the blood
of Christ. The scripture says, to whom much is forgiven, they'll
love much. Doesn't it? To whom much is forgiven,
they'll love much. That's the sense in which I believe
Christ was saying that about his word. True praise comes from
a true sense of forgiveness. You hear me? True praise, true
worship comes from a true sense of forgiveness. Why are we always
cold and dead and dry when it comes to worshiping God? Because
we lose our first love, don't we? Do you remember when the
gospel was first revealed to you? Every message. Three holds
your heart, doesn't it? Every message. And you were tender. You had a conscience that was
tender towards sin and things, didn't you? But now you grow
tired and you grow cold, you grow sleepy to these things.
Why? You lost your first love. You've lost that first sense
of forgiveness. You forgot the pit from which
you were dug. That's it. That's it exactly.
You've forgotten that you had to be quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sin. He didn't have to. You forget,
you lose sight of that. But he says there, I'll praise
you with uprightness of heart when I've learned what you've
done for me, your righteous judgments to me, to my life. Look at verse
8. I will keep thy statutes, thy
word. This reminds me of Peter when
Peter said, everybody else may forsake you, but not me. The
psalmist here gets a hold of all this and he says, I'm going
to keep your word. I'm going to keep it. Well, there's nothing wrong with
a firm resolve. I've done it lots of times. That
didn't work out. I've made covenants with my eyes,
my ears, and everything else. Well, there's nothing wrong with
this, with sincere determination, but it had better be followed
up by these words right here. I'll keep your statutes. Oh,
forsake me not. It better be followed up by that.
I'll keep your word, but don't forsake me utterly. Lean on the arm of the flesh
and you'll fall. You lean on the everlasting arm,
you'll never fall. Christ said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. Trust in me. I can do all things. Period? No. I'll keep your word. Period? No. Through Christ, which
strengtheneth me. Blessed are the sincere followers
of Christ. happy are they in the way, those
who walk in the law of the Lord, the Word of the Lord, walking
in the Word. If I were to die tonight or tomorrow, soon, I'd like to
be remembered by this church, not as being a good little pastor
or a good organizer or whatever, or even a good preacher. I know
better. But I would like to be known
as one who, first of all, gave all the glory to God, who attempted
to give all the glory to God for salvation. One who pointed
men to Christ and Him alone, away from himself, and pointed
men to Christ as their only hope of eternal life. And thirdly,
one who left everybody without excuse. I don't want to give
anybody any false refuge or false hope. or any excuse for their
sin and unbelief. One who warned everyone that
if they miss eternal life, it's their own fault. Their own fault. So that's the reason I continually
exhort you to get in this world, to get in this pew, to get in
your closet. If I'm a faithful under shepherd,
I must continually exhort you, and I'm not exhorting you to
do what I don't exhort myself to do. This is our only foundation,
the foundation of our faith. Christ is our only hope. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. We must hear it. We
must feed upon it. We must call upon him. We must
seek him with all our hearts, not half a heart, all the heart. So do so, by the grace of God,
do so. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this in prayer. Our Lord and our Redeemer, we
praise your holy name for this glorious book, for this wonderful
manifestation of your beautiful person. We thank you for every
word in it. Forgive our unbelief. Forgive
our lack of faith. our foolishness, our dullness
and slowness of heart, slow to believe, increase our faith,
increase our love to Christ. May we keep our eyes upon Him,
look to Him, trust in Him, and seek Him in this book, in your
Word. And based upon your promise,
you've promised that He'll be found by us. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen. Thank you.