Initial Point – Sunday Thought For The Day

WRITTEN FOR OUR DAILY BREAD 9/30/12 BY: David H. Roper:
If you drive south of our home in Boise, Idaho, you’ll see a volcanic butte that rises out of the sagebrush on the east side of the road. This is the initial point from which the state of Idaho was surveyed.

In 1867, four years after Idaho was organized as a territory, Lafayette Cartee, the Surveyor General of the United States, commissioned Peter Bell to survey the new territory. Bell took a sledge and drove a brass post into a little knob on the summit of that butte, declaring it to be the initial point from which he began his survey.

The survey established the language of land description in Idaho: Townships are designated north and south of the initial point; ranges are designated east and west. With such descriptions, you always know exactly where you are.

We may read many books, but the Word of God is our “initial point,” the fixed reference point. John Wesley read widely, but he always referred to himself as “a man of one book.” Nothing can compare to the Book of books, the Word of God. When we allow the Bible to be our guide in all of life, we can say with the psalmist, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119:103).

Dear Lord, we are grateful for Your Book. In it
we learn of You and find guidance and direction
for our lives. Help us to learn to love Your Word
and to eagerly dig into its pages. Amen.

The Bible is like a compass: if followed, you’re going in the right direction.

READ: Psalm 119:97-104
97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

102 I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.