Each year I have searched for a verse from the Bible to live by. Usually I find it near the end of the previous year. i.e. in December, but sometimes I have not found it well into January. I have preached many sermons on these verses that have meant so much to me.

    1 Peace … Isaiah ch26 v3 and Philippians ch4 v6-7

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace

Whose mind is stayed on Thee

Because he trusts in Thee

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock of ages.’

is 26:3,4 kjv

    I do not recall ever learning this verse, but no other statement in all Scripture has helped me more than this one. I must have learnt it very early in life. It helped me cope with my mindset of worry that has caused me concern many times in life; I am a ‘born worrier’. The first time these words came to my aid was during the war when we were being dive bombed by kamikaze planes. I was on the deck of a landing ship beside a bofors gun crew and feeling very frightened. This verse came into my mind and amazingly peace flooded my heart. Ever since then I have found it helpful and rarely a day goes by without me quoting it to myself. I link it with Philippians ch4v6-7 that includes the words: ‘and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." The main lesson for me in this has been: ‘The degree to which I trust in the Lord, is the degree to which I am freed from unreasonable fear.’

    Travelling in an aeroplane with one engine burning, lying on an operating table prior to an operation, seated between two opposing groups of people, faced by a leopard when I had no rifle in my hand, driving across a water covered plain not sure where the road precisely was, facing a lethal snake on the veranda, scared by rifle shots around me during an uprising and so on. In these and many other situations, Isaiah ch26 v3-4 has helped me to survive.

    2 Purpose in living Psalm 138 v8

The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;

Your love, O Lord, endures for ever.

Do not abandon the works of your hands.

Psalm 138 v8 (NIV)

    David wrote this. In succession he was a shepherd, a court musician, a war hero, an outlaw, an exile, a crowned king, a shamed father, yes, he failed in one area, as we well know.

    The first line, ‘The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me’ has influenced me greatly. My purpose for me may not be the same as His purpose for me! Each stage in life is a training situation for the next stage and the sum of the training situations equip us to fulfil God’s purpose in the here and now. Each stage in David’s life illustrates that. This can be shown from the lives of Moses, Paul and others. When I reflect on my own life, I can now see this working out.

    The greatest thing in live is for God to work out His purpose in our lives as we co-operate with Him in this. Only God really knows our potential and only He is able to put us into training situations that will expose and train as well as develop that potential.

     It is all too easy to stay within our comfort zones and not allow ourselves to be exposed to new possibilities and the false assumption that it is not our area of expertise. How shall we ever know if we are not ready to try out our skills in some new area? It would be great to come to the end of life and be able to honestly say: "Thank you Lord for fulfilling Your purpose in me." It can be only through His equipping and His gracious supply of strength to venture out in His name.

    3 Hope. Romans ch15 v13

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy Spirit." Romans ch15 v13

    The hopelessness of society has troubled me for years. When I came to New Zealand I was asked to speak to a christian group at Auckland University. The audience included Christians and non Christians. The open discussion after my talk left me gasping at the sense of hopelessness so many students voiced.

    This verse suggests that Christians are meant to be a hope resource in families, churches and national life, even international life! To stimulate hope is a great thing. Hope helps people to survive. We see this when older people hold onto life because to attend some family function, a wedding perhaps.

    God is the source of all true hope. As we trust in Him we are filled with peace. Isaiah ch26 v3 The consequence is that our hope overflows into the hopeless lives of other people.

    Hope is "Faith facing the future." I often think of Hopeful in Pilgrim’s Progress, crossing the final river whilst all the trumpets sound for him on the other side. Without knowing it, people have poured hope into my life and I have realised the value of what they have done too late to say thank you.

     Roman ch15 v13 has been a great blessing in recent years. Give up hope and the will to survive goes! Keep hoping and the future is bright. ‘While there’s life, there’s hope,’ seems to me to be inaccurate. Better to say ‘While’s there hope there’s life!’

    4 Security John ch10 v28-30

"I give them (my sheep) eternal life

and they shall never perish,

no one can snatch them out of my hand.

My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.

No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.’ John ch10 v28-30

     I read these verses more often than any other. I like to call them the eternal security of the double grip, they offer peace and security. First of all the believer, one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep, is kept safe in His powerful hand. Then the Father’s hand closes over the Good Shepherd’s hand and nothing can break that eternal grip. A lady in a village in Africa once told me that her one and only possession, her goat, had been sleeping in the same hut as herself for security. That was quite common practice. She woke up in the middle of the night alarmed by some grunts and found that a hyena had grabbed her goat by the tail. The lady grappled with this by hanging on to the goat’s beard with both hands and yelling out, ‘Binya lom! Binya lom!’ Binya is the word for goat. Eventually others in the village heard her cries and came out, saw the hyena, and chased it away with some difficulty. Her double-handed grip on the goat had saved the goat’s life. Africans related well to this story.

    We are totally secure in the Almighty’s double grip. Nobody, nothing can snatch us out of those two hands, we cannot even snatch ourselves out of those hands. If a person has a difficulty with assurance of salvation these verses will help. Sometimes I call ‘goodness and mercy’ from Psalm 23 the two hands of the Almighty. They follow us all the days of our lives till we reach the house of the Lord where we shall dwell for ever.

    5 God’s promises Joshua ch23 v14

"You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled, Not one has failed." Joshua ch23 v14

     Solomon quotes this in 1 Kings ch8 v56: ‘Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through his servant Moses.’

    We had learnt to count on God’s promises and this encouraged us to keep on counting on God to help, provide, guide, equip and bless us in the days ahead. Now that we look back on the years, we can testify with Joshua and Solomon that not one word has failed of all the good promises God gave.’  All we can do is trust the Lord in the dark days and recognise that ‘my times are in His hands’, Psalm 31 v15. If His promises have not failed in the past up till now, we can count on them in the present difficult days and in the future.

   6 Waiting on the Lord Isaiah ch40 v30-31

Those who hope in (wait on,KJV) the Lord

Shall renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

They will run and not grow weary;

They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah ch40 v30-31

    This verse had always been precious to me but when I suffered from kidney stones it became increasingly precious as I have already mentioned. Prayerful waiting on the Lord certainly gives strength to soar like eagles in thought, to run in God’s service without becoming exhausted, to walk in the right direction, step by step, to the goal of eternal rest in the Father’s House.

    It seems to me that an appropriate physical attitude in prayerful waiting on the Lord, combined with an expectant spiritual mindset and freedom from haste together can result in renewal in body, soul and spirit and that can help us cope with a day’s pressures.

    7 Grace 2 Corinthians ch12 v9

My grace is sufficient for you,

My power (strength,KJV) is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians ch12 v9 (NIV)

    What a wonderful divine quality grace is! Grace saves us, grace sustains us and grace teaches us, see Titus ch2 v11-12. I am so glad we live in a day when there is a recovered emphasis on God’s grace, e.g. the writings of Charles Swindoll, ‘Grace awakening’, and the later book by Philip Yancey, ‘What is so amazing about Grace’.

    The assurance that God’s grace is sufficient to sustain us along life’s pathway with all its tests and trials has been of enormous encouragement especially  In my prayers, I have often call on God’s grace to see us both through the difficult moments. Without the assurance of that grace, I would find it extremely difficult to cope.

    In the above quote above grace equals power/strength. Paul was writing in Greek but thinking in Hebrew, using what looks very much like a Hebrew parallelism, i.e. two lines which say the same thing in different words! Sufficient grace equals God’s strength functioning in our weakness and making us strong by His strength to cope. I am sure in the days ahead I shall need this assurance more and more. What’s more, it is totally free. All I have to do is ask for it and count on God to provide it. Paul had found it adequate for him in the experiences of life where he felt weakness so it may mean that the weaker we feel, the stronger we are as we count on the daily supply of divine grace. Counting on God implies trusting in Him to keep His word in His promises so maybe we need to learn to trust God more and more.

   8 Knowing God Daniel ch11 v32

They that know their God will be strong

And do exploits. Daniel ch11 v32 (RSV)

    Linking 1 Corinthians ch12 v9 with Daniel ch11 v32 explains "knowing" as ‘experiencing His grace’ which makes us strong as we have already seen and even helps us to do what the RSV translators call "exploits".

    To know Him is to trust in Him! There was a very difficult time on the mission field when things were not going well as far as we could see. I had been translating the book of Daniel, or, more correctly, daring to correct the provisional translation of the book made by Dr Olley. As I came upon this verse it struck me forcibly even though I had read it many times before. I needed to be strong and achieve the purposes of God  The secret was knowing God intimately, personally and experientially.

    From that time on, knowing God became a priority and , even through many years have passed, I still feel the urge to know God better.

    The situations God allowed us to experience were designed to help us progress in the knowledge of God and, as a consequence, to trust Him more completely. It is all too easy to swallow books on systematic theology and delve into Biblical languages without actually growing in the practical knowledge of God in daily life.

    People who know God are people who make us feel God is really near as they pray. For that reason I have cultivated the friendship of people who pray with the convincing impression that God is very near.

    I am thinking of one man in North Auckland now with the Lord. If ever I travelled north whilst he was alive I would always find an excuse to stop at his place briefly on the way and ask him to pray with me. The sense of the nearness of the Almighty when he prayed was awesome and I used to go on my way with a wonderful sense of the nearness of God himself.

     9 Soul winning Daniel ch12 v3

Those who are wise will shine

Like the brightness of the heavens,

And those who lead many to righteousness

Like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel ch12 v3 (NIV)

    In my father’s library was a book on the life of Duncan Matheson, a Scottish evangelist, mightily used by God. I read it when I was a young man. Dad had died years before but his books were all over the house. Duncan Matheson’s verse to live by was Daniel ch12 v3. I think we need to keep in mind that many people are links in the chain of witness that finally brings a person to the Lord to find salvation in Him. It would be wrong to say that such people are not soul winners. Some are gifted middle links in the chain, some are more often last links in the chain. However, all are equally important in the chain of witness.

    On another occasion when I was speaking at a function, a man who was a Bible Society representative came up to me afterwards and said: ‘I have always wanted to tell you that I became a Christian when you were speaking years ago.’

    Africans expected people to be converted every time the Good News was preached.

    It has been a great privilege to lead a few people to the Lord and all the honour goes to His Holy Spirit who works in the heart of people. I have great respect for people whom God has used in this area and shall look forward to seeing them shining as stars on God’s stage in the eternal city!

    10 Resurrection Life of Jesus released Romans ch8 v2

    I confess to being disappointed by the NIV translation of this verse which has meant so much to me since I discovered its meaning and experienced its effects on my life.

Through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit

Of life has set me us free from the law of sin

And death. Romans ch8 v2 (NIV)

May I suggest a better rendering:

The law of the Spirit, that is to say the

(resurrection) life (experienced) in

union with Christ Jesus has set me free from

the law of sin and death.

    That is an expanded translation admittedly. One day, many years ago, I was reflecting on Romans ch8 v2 when I was suddenly ‘enlightened’. I saw that the resurrection life of Christ Jesus had been released in believers by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. Consequently there was every reason to be confident about overcoming temptation, the sin principle working in believer.

    ‘Law" here should be understood as ‘principle’. To know that the sin principle is countered so effectively by the Holy Spirit’s release of resurrection power, Jesus’ resurrection power has been a concept that has helped me greatly whenever it comes to mind.

    The Lord has graciously brought this to mind many times when I have been confronted with testings and temptations and I have cried to Him for help to cope. This concept gives great confidence.

     There is no doubt that discovery learning is more effective than learning second-hand from others.