Wiser Than Your Enemies

Bright Lights Set Seven – Mtg. Four:  How to Be Wiser Than Your Enemies

Bible reading challenge update!  

What are some tips that help you stay awake or alert as you read in the morning or at night?  Which biblical discipline is the hardest for you to be consistent in?  What distractions or hindrances make it difficult for you to be consistent?  Share one verse that has stood out to you recently.  Name one benefit you have seen in your own life as you have been faithful in reading God’s Word each day.  (For a great article on Biblical Disciplines go here:  http://www.acts17-11.com/disciplines.html )

Stories and Illustrations…

Be Wiser Than Your Enemies!

Wisdom and knowledge are very different. Two different people could look at exactly the same sets of information and come to entirely different conclusions. The problem is this – our understanding varies according to both our perspective and our experience.

We may think we know what a familiar mountain looks like, but when we see that same mountain from a different direction it looks entirely different. It’s all a matter of what our perspective is. We may set out to climb the mountain a certain way, but discover it’s impossible to approach the summit from that direction. Whereas the man with experience of having climbed the mountain before, may set off in a direction that looks longer, but he will always get there first, because he has learned from experience.

The problem with life is that we can look at all the circumstances prevailing around us and be at a loss as to what is the right thing to do. Our knowledge is limited, our perspective is not perfect and we have limited experience. What we lack is the wisdom to know what to do. We may have the facts but we don’t have the understanding as to what to do with the facts!

But there is One who has all knowledge, and His perspective on events and circumstances is always just right. The Lord is not limited by the horizons of our own experience. On our journey through life we desperately need to be taking our instructions from Him. No wonder the Psalmist was able to say ‘your commands make me wiser than my enemies.’ When we hear and obey His voice we will always be on solid ground.

His wisdom is essential if we are going to make our way through this fallen world, in which the enemy of souls is constantly wanting to trip us up and take us off course. With His wisdom we will always be wiser than our enemies – as we acknowledge Him, He will make our paths straight and show us the way to go – every step of the way.

Prayer: Father God, I confess that many times I have depended on my own knowledge and experience and have not listened to your voice or taken note of what you have said in your Word. Help me, Lord, to look up to you for the wisdom that passes all human understanding so that I will be wiser than my enemies and experience your blessing on my path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:  http://www.seedsofthekingdom.com/devotionals/0537/be-wiser-than-your-enemies.php

Watch video about life and testimony of William Borden:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciDWL5fshHg

What could you accomplish in an hour a day for a year?

Sword Drill….

Deut. 4: 5-6

Joshua 1: 7-8

Psalm 19: 7-8

Psalm 119: 97-100

Prov. 2: 1-11

2 Timothy 3:14-15

Main Concepts…

Build on our last lesson of Delighting in God’s Word by purposing to memorize and meditate on Scripture.  Catch the vision for what you can achieve in this area if you put your whole heart and mind into it.

Wisdom does not come from having a lot of “head knowledge”.  There is no wisdom in boasting of your own accomplishments.  The main goal of wisdom is to have hearts that are seeking the Lord.

There is no wisdom in what the world tells you when it says that it is ok to relax during your youth and not worry about using your time well.  Wisdom comes from listening to God’s Word, which instructs us to do the exact opposite.

When you are young, you are able to memorize more easily.  This is also the time of life where you have more free time than you will later on.  We should take seriously the challenge to memorize as much as we can during our youth.  It is easy to get caught up in activities which are not wrong, but aren’t the best use of time or won’t count for eternity.

Familiarizing ourselves with Scripture allows us to use it to speak truth in our hearts.  When Satan tries to tell us lies, we can use God’s Word to counter those lies.  The Lord Jesus did this in Matthew 4 when He was tempted by Satan.

One of the biggest hindraces to reading and memorizing God’s Word is laziness and a lack of self-discipline.  It is very important to use time wisely…

“The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”  Ps. 119:130

Activities:

Read several verses in Proverbs, divide into groups and have the girls act out how they can be wiser than their enemies by applying these verses.

Memorize Ps. 1: 1-3 by experimenting with different memorizing techniques.

Have each girl choose one Bible verse or passage that she wants to memorize and meditate on in the upcoming weeks.  Copy it onto an index card, decorate it, and start memorizing it.  Quote the verse at home throughout the next few weeks and at the next meeting be ready to share something you’ve learned from it.

Write a Psalm for our Bright Lights Newsletter!

Delighting in God's Word

Set Seven Meeting Three – Delighting in God’s Word

Stories and Illustrations

Fanny Crosby

Frances Jane Crosby was born into a family of strong Puritan ancestry on March 24, 1820. As a baby, she had an eye infection which an incompetent doctor treated by placing hot poultices on her red and inflamed eyelids. The infection did clear up, but the result was that scars formed on the eyes, and the Fanny became blind for life. A few months later, Fanny's dad became ill and died. Mercy Crosby, widowed at 21, hired herself out as a maid while Grandmother Eunice Crosby took care of little Fanny.

Fanny's grandmother took on the education herself and became the girl's eyes, vividly describing the physical world. Grandmother's careful teaching helped develop Fanny's descriptive abilities, she also nurtured Fanny's spirit. She read and carefully explained the Bible to her, and she always emphasized the importance of prayer. When Fanny became depressed because she couldn't learn as other children did, Grandmother taught her to pray to God for knowledge.

A landlady of the Crosby's also had an important role in Fanny's development. Mrs. Hawley helped Fanny memorize the Bible, and often the young girl learned five chapters a week. She knew the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms by heart. She developed a memory which often amazed her friends, but Fanny believed she was no different from others. Her blindness had simply forced her to develop her memory and her powers of concentration more. Blindness never produced self-pity in Fanny and she did not look on her blindness as a terrible thing. At eight years old she composed this little verse:

Oh, what a happy child I am, although I cannot see!

I am resolved that in this world contented I will be!

How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't!

So weep or sigh because I'm blind, I cannot - nor I won't.

In 1834 Fanny learned of the New York Institute for the Blind and knew this was the answer to her prayer for an education. She entered the school when she was twelve and went on to teach there for twenty-three years. She became somewhat of a celebrity at the school and was called upon to write poems for almost every conceivable occasion.

On March 5, 1858, Fanny married Alexander van Alystyne, a former pupil at the Institute and now taught there as a professor. He was a musician who was considered one of the finest organists in the New York area. Fanny herself was an excellent harpist, played the piano, and had a lovely soprano voice. Even as an old woman (Fanny lived to be 95) Fanny would sit at the piano and play everything from classical works to hymns to ragtime. Sometimes she even played old hymns in a jazzed up style.

After her marriage, Fanny left the Institute, and in a few years she found her true vocation in writing hymns. She had an agreement with the publishers Bigelow and Main to write three hymns a week for use in their Sunday school publications. Sometimes Fanny wrote six or seven hymns a day. Though Fanny could write complex poetry as well as improvise music of classical structure, her hymns were aimed at bringing the message of the Gospel to people who would not listen to preaching. Whenever she wrote a hymn, she prayed God would use it to lead many souls to Him.

In her own day, the evangelistic team of Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey effectively brought Fanny Crosby's hymns to the masses. Today many of her hymns continue to draw souls to their Savior for both salvation and comfort: " Blessed Assurance," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," "To God Be the Glory, " "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior," " Safe in the Arms of Jesus," "Rescue the Perishing," "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross," "I Am Thine, O Lord," and many more.

Though her hymn writing declined in later years, Fanny was active in speaking engagements and missionary work among America's urban poor almost until the day of her death in 1915. She sought to bring others to her Savior not only through her hymns but through her personal life as well. What happened when Fanny died? Perhaps one of her later hymns tells it best:

When my lifework is ended and I cross the swelling tide,

When the bright and glorious morning I shall see,

I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,

And His smile will be the first to welcome me.

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

And redeemed by His side I shall stand!

I shall know Him, I shall know Him

By the print of the nails in His hand.

Fanny Crosby was probably the most prolific hymnist in history, writing over 8,000 hymns. As many as 200 different pen names were given to her works by hymn book publishers so that the public wouldn't know she wrote so large a number of them. She produced as many as seven hymns/poems in one day. On several occasions, upon hearing an unfamiliar hymn sung, she would inquire about the author, and find it to be one of her own!

If you were to take fifteen hymnals and stack them one on top of another. Taken all together, that's about the number of hymns Fanny wrote in her lifetime! Of course, many of those have been forgotten today, but a large number remain favorites of Christians all over the world. In her lifetime, Fanny Crosby was one of the best known women in the United States and a strong Christian whose legacy of faithfulness to God is exhibited by the hymns that will be sung for all eternity!

Watch 2 videos of Bibles being distributed and the rejoicing that accompanied those events!

Sword Drill

Job 23:12

Psalm 119: 92 - 105

Proverbs 30:5

John 8:31

1 Timothy 4: 11 – 15

1 Peter 2:2

Main Concepts

If we want to strong in the Lord, it is vital that we are daily receiving nourishment from God’s Word.  If we want to be wise it is vital that we are going directly to the source of wisdom – the Bible.

Reading God’s Word is not a duty that we should dread, but rather a great blessing and privilege!  The more we get to know the Lord and His Word, the more we will naturally want to spend time in it.

Delighting in God’s Word is primarily a decision – not a feeling.  The emotions will come, but it begins with a commitment to read consistently and faithfully.

If we neglect God’s Word, our appetite for it will diminish.  However, the more we spend time in it, the more our appetite will grow.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.”  Psalm 1:1-2

Activities

Write testimonies about what you have learned from God’s Word in the past, and how God has used it in your life…these will be compiled into a Bright Lights newsletter.

Bible reading challenge!  Spend at least 5 minutes reading in your Bible every day (more if possible!) and mark your schedule…have your mom or dad be your accountability partner.  Bring back your schedule to our next meeting to get a prize.