Bible Studies

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This lesson is the second step of our new direction. Psalm twenty-five was the active initiation into a different world that came after a period of study and practice. All of what we do is action and so we need to know how to put what we have learned into daily use. What is it like to live that spiritual life? How do our perceptions of what happens to us change us and how do we react? What does it feel like to transform learning to action?

Do you remember when you first learned to ride a bike? You are up and balanced and a loving hand gives a little push... the momentum that is not of our making is enough to give us balance and we pass through the magical gates into a larger world.





26. First Steps

How am I doing, my Lord, let me know. Am I following the path You showed me? I have trusted in You and it is the trust that has kept me going. Test me and prove my will, it will improve my strength and courage.

I have felt the love You have for me and I have looked for your truth. I don’t want the company of vain people and I stay away from liars and con men. I hate people who think they can gain from cheating and I won’t conspire with criminals. My hands are clean and I am innocent; let me come near to You, I can speak out my thanks and tell of your wondrous works.

Lord, I have loved being in your house, it is the place where honor lives. Don’t gather my soul with the sinners, those bloody-handed men who cause trouble for themselves and all who are near them. See me for who I am; I am holding to the truth, be merciful to me. My feet are on a flat, sure place and I will bless the Lord to those who can hear the truth.





It is as if the sun has come out. Here is logic and thought behind the actions and they have brought feelings of innocence and joy. We always want to know how we are doing. Am I passing the tests? Am I improving? There is no time for guilt here, forgiveness is real. We are innocent in a legal sense because we follow the laws of right living, but we feel innocence because we were told that He has forgiven us and so we cast away that doubt.

We are learning to praise God by habit, to look for the right path always in our ordinary walking. It is easy to understand that holding on to bad habits like anger and envy and lust can never bring any good to our lives, but why would we hang onto guilt? We know that acknowledging guilt is the path to forgiveness, but harboring guilt is no better than continuing to sin. We require forgiveness to wash away our sins, but then we are expected to feel forgiven. How can you feel something if you don’t? Maybe some don’t really feel guilty and maybe some don’t believe forgiveness is real; but as for us, we act as if we are innocent and we understand the truth of it. Feelings follow reality: truth leads it.

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