Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, April 24: Proverbs 4:18

"But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day."

In the midst of all the great gems shown in this chapter, this verse seemed to shine the brightest this morning. It led me immediately to 2 Corinthians 3:18: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

Instead of the fading light from the face of Moses, the light of Christ grows brighter and brighter. And when we let our "eyes look directly forward", and our "gaze be straight before" us, and we "ponder the path of" our feet; we see "then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil." (Proverbs 4:25-27)

In other words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

Then, in Colossians, just in case you want to know, Paul gives us a list of what things are from above, and what things are not. You might want to take the time to read the rest of that chapter.

And when the righteous walk that path of Light, it just shines brighter and brighter! You may ask, how do we get righteous? Here's how:

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth to be a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

"this was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:23-26)

"Justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!" Made righteous. Forgiven and placed on the path of righteousness, pressing on so that we may attain that for which we were already attained in Christ Jesus! (Philippians 3)

After this great verse in Proverbs 4:18, we see the awful way of unbelief: "The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble" (19). Jesus warned that all who rejected Him would fall into "outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 22:13)

Outer darkness. Do you realize that those in darkness now still mercifully see glimmers of light through God's grace? Can you imagine the time when His light is completely taken away? That spark of conscience the sinner suppresses, which states the obvious as he walks through the light of common grace? Gone?

As we persevere toward the light, they persevere toward the darkness. In the end, we will both get what we seek. Those who seek after Christ and His righteousness, depending upon His grace will receive the fullness of His light. Those who seek the ways of darkness will get exactly that, as what light that was left in them is finally removed. All that is left is a shadow of what they once were. No light. Outer darkness.

I beg of you, take the path of the righteous. Repent and turn to Christ today!

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day."

You need no visual for this other than what is put before you. Simply see yourself, made righteous by Christ, walking toward the "light of dawn", which I picture as Christ glowing as in Revelation 1. As I walk toward His light, it gets brighter and brighter until I am fully immersed in it. A new day has dawned!

So, today, walk down the street, or a sidewalk, or a hallway reciting this marvelous verse. Use the key rhyming "I" words to keep your place. I counted six of them to help me along, three in the first line, and three in the second: "Righteous/like the Light/shines/brighter and brighter".

Also note that line one ends with "dawn", and line two ends with "day".

I use my friend "Ray" for chapter 4, since we use R to phonetically represent 4, vowels fillers. We remember this because four is the only numeral that ends with an R. It is verse 18, so we must link the two numbers into one word, using only the consonants that represent 1 and 8. By the way, 8 is represented by the phonetic sounds of F, V, and ph, since they all are the same sound, just pronounced with different air pressures. So we have T or D for 1, and F,V, or ph for our 8 options. I picked the word "DiVe", since D-V = 18. I could have used TV, Tough, Dave, Daffy, Taffy, etc. But I have my friend Ray not only walking on the "path of the righteous", but running full speed and "DiVing" into the Light, landing in the arms of Jesus! I won't forget that picture, but it is important that I remember who is doing the "diving". This way I've linked the verse to 4:18.