Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
After Jesus drove the merchants out of the temple, He began to teach those who gathered around Him. Luke records that “all the people hung on His words” (Luke 19:48).
I believe that one of the main reasons His words had such authority and power to capture people’s attention was because He was so immersed in Scripture. As Jesus cleared the temple, He quoted from two Old Testament prophets. As He told a parable to the crowd in the temple—a parable that the religious leaders knew “He had spoken…against them”—He made a passage from Psalm 118 the foundational piece of His story.
The words of Jesus are…
- Scriptural
- authoritative
- loving
- unswervingly truthful
- practical
- challenging
- unconventional (according to human standards)
- God-glorifying
- paradigm challenging
- life changing
I want others to say of me what Charles Spurgeon said of John Bunyan, “Why, this man is a living Bible! Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God.”
Wouldn’t you want that said of your life too? I sure would!
Our first step is to read the Word of God. Next, we need to allow the God of the Word to transform our minds. And then we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us apply the Bible to everything we say and do.
Heavenly Father, I pray that people may hear the words of Jesus in all the words I speak. Holy Spirit, bring all of the Word I have read back to my mind (John 14:26; Mark 13:11) so that it is not my words that I am speaking but Yours. In the name of Jesus I ask this. Amen!
(To go a little deeper on this topic, check out Whose Words Have Weight? and The Timeliest of Words.)
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Proverbs: Amplified And Applied (book review)
January 10, 2023 — Craig T. OwensListen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I enjoy reading devotional books that are based on passages of Scripture, but I get quite frustrated when there is more devotional thought than there is Scripture. This is decidedly not the case in Dick Brogden’s devotional book Proverbs: Amplified And Applied.
Full disclosure: Dick Brogden is my cousin, so I may be just slightly biased on this book. But I don’t think my bias in any way contradicts my statement about the volume of Scripture contained in this powerfully insightful devotional work.
Dick has taken the Book of Proverbs and gone deep on every single verse. Each note is a treasure trove of insights, cross-references to other biblical concepts, and action steps that can immediately become a prayer request or a daily goal.
Let me give you an example. Provers 2:7 says, “He holds success in store for the upright, He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.” Dick’s amplification and application for this verse says—
“Wisdom is a supply and a defense. Wisdom gained now provides in the present and protects in the future. God in His benevolence stockpiles wisdom for us. He gives neither Spirit nor wisdom by measure. He delights to flood, saturate, fill, overwhelm, and lavish the spirit of wisdom, counsel, discernment, and understanding upon us. When we walk in the light, in integrity, it is as if we have a library card that allows us free checkout of heaven’s daily living manuals. Our integrity is what gives us access to all the stored-up wisdom of God. Integrity also shields us from the attacks of folly. The grandest folly comes wrapped in deceptive intelligence. The devil is able (cunning angel of light that he is) to make foolish things seem wise. We are able to see through his disguises and be shielded from his traps when we have a legacy of continually checking out, reading, and applying God’s insight. It is the familiarity with the feel of the true that helps us recognize the false.”
I’m reading through the Book of Proverbs very slowly this year, allowing Dick’s commentary to help me let these principles sink in deep. For those who love the wisdom of Proverbs, I would greatly encourage you to get a copy of Dick’s book for yourself.
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