OFFENSE PROOF

Psa. 119:165

Morning Meditation

Psalms 119:165, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."

I have seen so many people offended over the years. I have been guilty of offending people. I never liked myself for doing that. That is not like Jesus and He is certainly not in control when it happens. I also want to be the kind of disciple that is "offence proof." Jesus was that kind of person. Paul says in Acts 24:16, "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men."

The word "offence" in this verse means, "to make them stumble." Those who love God's Word are armored against the fiery darts of Satan; their feet are guided so they do not fall into his snares.

SITUATIONS CANNOT MAKE THEM STUMBLE

Those who love God's Word can say with Paul in Philippians 1:12, "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;" What the world means for harm, God turns it into good. Paul is in prison. How could this possibly be for good. He won Onesimus to Salvation and sent him back to Philemon as a repentant sinner.

John Phillip's comment on this verse is, "Those who love God's Word are armored against the fiery darts of Satan; their feet are guided so they do not fall into his snares." Psalms 37:23-24, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand."

There are situations in which the Christian finds himself many times that cause him to tip toe. We realize that Satan is after us. So we seek and receive His guidance. He guides our feet around the trigger of the trap. I have an idea that Satan blows his top many times because of the Lord's protection.

SCHOLARS CANNOT MAKE THEM STUMBLE

They are in touch with truth itself, truth imparted by the omniscient wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The theories and philosophies of men are like surging seas which break themselves at last against the massive headlands and coastlines of the Word of God.

There is imminent protection for those believers who make the Word of God their daily guide. Psalms 107:20, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."

Psalms 119:28, "My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word."

Depression The word "heaviness" translates a word that means, "grief, heaviness, sorrow." This is the state of one depressed. The effect of this state of "heaviness or "sorrow" is the state of "melting," which means, "to weep tears, or, to leak." This might be expressed by the thought that one in this state cannot maintain the attitude of victory. During this time he rises at times to enjoy an attitude of victory only to shortly lose his fellowship and joy in the Lord. It is like the guy who always came to the yearly revival services. The pastor watched him. He would always come in and sit in about the same place each year. As soon as the invitation was given he would come forward always on the first stanza and fall in the altar and plead with God to fill him. He would always rise from his prayer meeting shouting the praises of the Lord. After the revival was over, he did not return to church until a year later at the next revival. Well, the pastor got fed up with him. The next revival, surely enough, the man came in and sat about the same place. When the invitation was given, he was the first to "hit the altar." He prayed earnestly that the Lord would fill him. The pastor slipped off the platform and knelt beside him. As the man was praying that the Lord would fill him, the pastor prayed, "Lord, don't do it. He leaks!!!!"

A lot of people think that scholarship insures that one is right because of that scholarship. Our pastor is "Dr. So and So. He is a very learned man." Study can be an aid in the exposition of Scripture. But it can also be the source of pride and proclaiming one's own opinion of what the scripture teaches. But scholars often do a lot of interpreting the Scripture. They do the same thing to the Bible that the Supreme Court does to the Constitution, i.e., the founding fathers did not mean the interpretations being made of it.

SINNERS CANNOT MAKE THEM STUMBLE

The temptations they put before them do not entice them; the terrors they threaten do not intimidate. "Great peace have they that love Thy law and NOTHING shall offend them."

Such is the peace of the psalmist. It is peace the world cannot give, a peace it can not take away. It is a peace that does not depend on what happens.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White