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How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you\u201d (Psalm 119:9-11).

Last Friday, pastor Anthony offered us a devotion on the value getting into the Word. This topic also come up in the sermon I preached yesterday. I had planned on following last Thursday\u2019s devotion on Psalm 71, with reflections on these verses from Psalm 119. I had a fleeting thought to do something else, but as you recognize by now, that thought didn\u2019t stick.

Here\u2019s why. Thursday\u2019s devotion concerned the idea of finishing well. It\u2019s a good thing to think about. But it strikes me that it is rather difficult to finish well, if you don\u2019t start well. It\u2019s hard to get to the finish line of a marathon, if you begin at the wrong place. Not impossible, I suppose (not having ever run a marathon). But, I think we can all agree that starting at the right place is extremely beneficial.

As I noted in yesterday\u2019s sermon, the early church began with devotion to the teachings of the apostles. Clearly, these teachings were about Jesus and how to follow him. This is where we begin (and end) the Christian journey: the Word. It is the Holy Spirit\u2019s main tool to connect and keep us connected to our Lord.

So somehow, as the Psalmist says, we need to get this Word into our hearts. Our eyes and ears are the vehicle to our hearts in this. I used to advocate that we ought to get lots and lots of the Bible into us, the more the merrier, as they say. But I have reconsidered. I think its better to use manageable bits. For each of us that will be different. Its like food, we can only handle so much food before our stomachs start to get sore. I think the same is true for scripture.

Let me suggest that we do two things with the Word. First, we pray it back to God. This does not always include words on our part. It\u2019s like holding it in our hands and showing it back to God. We might ask questions of God about his word. What does this mean? Why did you use that image or word? Why did you have people do this or not do that? We might compare it to like looking at a painting or photograph and really looking at the details. As we do this, we ought to expect God to respond. Usually, he doesn\u2019t respond audible, but the Spirit does nudge our hearts and brains.

The second thing we ought to do with the Word is \u2018do something with it\u2019. What does God want me/us to do with this Word? Do we need to think about him or ourselves differently? Do we need to alter our attitudes towards certain people? Do we need to change the way that we spend our money?

If we want to finish well, the best thing to do is to start well. As the first church was devoted to the Apostle\u2019s teaching, we need to be devoted to the Scriptures. If you\u2019re in the middle of your journey its not too late to change course, but more about that on Wednesday.