Category: Sword Fighting Class

Sword Fighting Class – Keep to the Good Path

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God is doing this amazing thing of writing whole chapters of his word on our hearts and minds!  Do you feel it?  Do you feel God’s wisdom soaking down into your thoughts, saturating them with what is true?  As we remain faithful in going over and over these words every day, God is also being faithful in making them stick.  I have a really bad memory so this is truly a miracle that I know and feel and repeat every day whole chapters of God’s word.  Unbelievable!  We’re almost to the end of Proverbs 2!Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. 

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Thank you, Lord!)  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. 

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

It will save you also from the adulteress, the wayward wife with her seductive words who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.  For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.  None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.’

Yeah!  We’re through that section and on to encouraging words:

“Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.”

Yes we will!  Because the wisdom and understanding and discernment and knowledge we get from keeping God’s commands in our heart will help us to avoid the wicked path, the perverse path, the crooked path and the paths that lead down to sin and death.

With God’s words firmly and forever planted in our minds, we will be able to keep to the path of goodness and stay in a right relationship with God.

Thank you, Abba Father!

Audio file of me repeating Proverbs 2:

Sword Fighting Class – Tangled Webs

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What an awesome thing God is doing!  We are reviewing our scriptures every day, several times a day…..and God is etching it on our minds so we can remember it.  So we can live it!Proverbs 2 1st page

My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. 

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair- every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perseverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive ways who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.  For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

Thank you, God for helping us memorize your words!  Here is the next verse:

None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we go down the path of sin.  We get confused.  We lose sight of what is most important.  We get lost……

The joy we’re looking for will not be found on the path of sin.

The peace we’re looking for will not be experienced on the path of sin.

The purpose and fulfillment we desire will not happen on the path of sin.

The love and forgiveness and wholeness that only comes from God will not be a part of our lives when turn away from him and we choose to go down the paths of sin.

Thank you, Abba Father, for lighting our paths with your word of truth so we don’t have to wander.

Audio file of me saying Proverbs 2 from memory:

Sword Fighting Class – Step Away From the Line

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This is an amazing journey as God faithfully writes his words from Proverbs 2 on our hearts and minds.  You may have used the same excuse I used to use  about not memorizing scripture – that I have a bad memory.  We are discovering that our bad memories don’t matter.  Nothing is impossible with God – and he’s proving it!Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

“My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will know the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. 

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.  Who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and who rejoice in the perverseness of evil.  Whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.”

Thank you, God, for helping us memorize these verses!  Now we add another verse of warning this week:

“For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.”

Wise people will avoid getting close to ‘sin’, having conversations with ‘sin’, and they will avoid stepping onto the path to ‘sin’s’ house.  A sure way not to give into temptation is to not go near it.  It is not possible to step over the line unless we are close to it.

Dear Father, please help us step very far AWAY from the line.

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

Sword Fighting Class – Stay in the Light

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

We are memorizing Proverbs 2 together and we are watching in amazement as God blesses our faithfulness and write all of these words on our minds:

My child, if you accept my words and store up commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.  Who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil.  Whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

Great job!  We are through the wicked men section and now we’re going to start memorizing about wayward women.  I put the next 2 verses together because it made more sense as I was memorizing it:Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words who has left partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.

As we read this, the obvious message is that wisdom will save us from partnering up with someone who is going to be unfaithful to us.

God is also talking with us about being wise in avoiding sexual sins and the things that will draw us away from his light.  Our world is full of sexual messages and its hard to avoid all of the invitations to go down this dark, slippery path.   As Christians, God’s Spirit lives in us – our bodies are his temple – and he wants us to take that responsibility seriously.

We will be memorizing a couple of more verses warning us to avoid the wayward woman who represents sin.

Please give us wisdom, Abba Father.

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

Sword Fighting Class – Walk on the Straight Path

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We are partnering with God as we memorize Proverbs 2.  As we review the scripture 2 or 3 times a day, God writes it on our hearts.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

“My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.  For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.  Who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil.”Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

Great job!  We are almost done memorizing about the wicked men.  Here is the last verse of this part:

‘Whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.’

Dear Father, thank you for helping us to soak your word deep into our hearts and minds.  Please help us straighten out any paths in our lives that are not honoring to you.  Help us see any of our thoughts or motives that are devious.  Help us change, dear Father.  Transform our thoughts and desires so we can walk more closely with you.  In the redeeming name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

Sword Fighting Class – What do We Delight In?

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

We are experiencing the power of God in a new way in our lives as we memorize Proverbs 2.  We go through our scripture every day while God actually does the work of writing in on our hearts.  Awesome!

“My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. 

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.  Who leave straight paths to walk in dark ways,”

Amazing!  I’m finding it interesting to memorize these verses about wickedness.  God is bringing new awareness into my mind as these words roll around in it.  Here is the next verse:Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

“Who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil.”

It always surprises me.  Someone I’m having a conversation with describes a behavior or a situation where they did something obviously wrong but they smile and look like they think it’s smart – they got ‘over’ or they were more clever than everyone else at cheating the system, or they didn’t get in ‘trouble’ for doing it so now they are bragging about it.

These are all dark paths and crooked ways.

That’s our world.  Our culture.  And it will be our thinking unless we let the truth of God lead us and transform us.

What do we delight in?  And rejoice in?

Please open our eyes, dear Father, to our own behaviors and thoughts.  Shine your light and help us turn from any darkness on our journey towards your truth.  We love you!

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

Sword Fighting Class – Walk in the Light

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

As we go over and over the words of Proverbs 2, we are realizing that a supernatural thing is happening.  God is writing his words onto our minds and into our hearts!

We used to say that the reason we didn’t memorize scripture was that we didn’t have a very good memory.  Well, we still don’t have a great memory – except when it comes to scripture.  We’ve got whole chapters of the Bible memorized!  Because God is faithfully doing it. We’re doing our part and he is doing the amazing part that we can’t do.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

God is blessing our obedience to the words he used as he started out Proverbs 2:

My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understand what is right and just and fair, every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose ways are perverse.”

Great job!  Here’s the next verse:

“Who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,”

Jesus is the light of the world.  He brought light into a dark and broken world.

When we choose to think and act like Jesus wants us to, we are walking in the light.

When we choose to rebel and disobey, we are choosing to walk a dark and crooked path.Proverbs 2 -13-3-11

This path just leads us farther and farther away from the light.

The Good News is Jesus will always accept us back.  We just need to repent and turn  around.  We must choose to come back into the light.  Get back on the straight path.

This is the path God has prepared in advance for us through his love and grace.

Thank you, Abba Father.

 

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

 

Sword Fighting Class – Saved by Wisdom

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We are memorizing Proverbs 2 together!  Good job!

‘My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.’

Yeah, God!  And we’re adding the next verse:

‘Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse.”

Wisdom will save us from those whose words are perverse.

I looked up the definition of perverse and was surprised to read that a couple of the definitions are being resistant to discipline or guidance.  Another one is being stubborn or contrary.

Wow!  I was wondering why God had me memorizing verses about wicked men and now I know.  Sometimes I need to be saved from myself!

What about you?

Thank you, dear Father, for the wisdom you are writing on tablet of our hearts as we memorize your word.  Open our eyes to our own behavior when we are stubborn and resistant to discipline.

Audio file of Proverbs 2:

 

Sword Fighting Class – More Discretion and Understanding

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

“My child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you will understnad what is right and just and fair – every good path.  For wisdom will enter your heart and understanding will be pleasant to your soul.”

Yeah, God!  We’re adding verse 11 this week:

‘Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you.’

Discretion means to be careful and thoughtful about our speech and actions in order to avoid causing offense, to keep something confidential or avoid embarrassment.

Could any of us benefit from more discretion?  I know I could.

And I love all of God’s promises in this passage about giving us more understanding.  Understanding will help us make better decisions and help us determine the best way to act.

Discretion and understanding will protect us from ourselves – bad choices and words that should not be said.

Please give us discretion and understanding, Abba Father.

Audio file below of Proverbs 2

Sword Fighting Class – Wisdom and Knowledge

On By Judy GlasserIn Sword Fighting ClassLeave a comment

We are memorizing Proverbs 2 and we are experiencing the blessing of God as he writes these promises and truth on our hearts and minds.  We practice saying these several times a day but God is actually doing the etching.  Thank you, Father!Proverbs 2 1st page - this one

“My Child, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.  He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Then you know what is right and just and fair – every good path.”

We will know every good path because – the next verse:

‘For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.’

Do you feel wisdom entering your heart as we recite God’s words over and over every day?

There’s this supernatural thing happening as I say these words aloud several times a day.  They become part of my thinking.  They change how I feel.  As I’m memorizing, I meditate over these words so much more than I did when I just read them and went on.  God speaks to me all of the time through these words as I’m saying them over and over and adding on the next verse.

Is this happening to you as you memorize God’s words?

I also love the anticipation of what the next verse is going to bring up.  Where is this search for wisdom going to take my thoughts?

And the knowledge that has come along with memorizing God’s word is very pleasant to my soul.  As his words reverberate through my head during the day, he gives me a peace that doesn’t come from anything else in this world.  He is renewing my mind….one verse at a time.

I’m glad you’re on this journey with me!

Audio file of our verses so far: