UDDERLY FACINATING!

  Free ‘Cow’ image from PX Here.

Cows have four stomachs!!!  Wouldn’t that be nice.  You could always stand in the ‘All You Can Eat’ line!  They have four stomachs because ‘All Cows Eat Grass’ which is full of cellulose and very hard to digest.  Ever see a cow lying in the shade chewing ‘bubblegum’? She is actually chewing her ‘cud’ or partly digested food that has just made a return trip from her first stomach or rumen to her mouth and back again.  She’ll do this 8 hours a day, over and over, moving her jaws 40,000 times a day they say!!!

This is where we get the word, ruminate or meditate; to think deeply or carefully about something, to chew our cud as it were.
Catch this, her 40-50 gallon rumen contains more bacteria and microbes than there are humans on the earth!  These create a giant fermentation vat in her stomach that pre-digest the 20-30 pounds of hay a cow eats per day.  Each time she swallows her cud, her second stomach, the reticulum, nicknamed ‘the hardware stomach’ slowly receives the pre-digested food and passes it along to the cows third and fourth stomachs where digestion much like ours finishes the process!  It is called ‘the hardware stomach’ because it removes any hardware like nails or bits of BARBED WIRE the cow may have inadvertently eaten.  All is well as long as the hardware doesn’t penetrate the wall of her stomach.

Remember the scripture from Job 12, ‘Ask the beasts and they will teach you’?
Not only have cows been teaching us to ‘Eat More Chicken’, but also the value of cud chewing.  This message is so common that the word ruminating from the word rumen, or the cows first stomach has become part of our language and both ‘thinking deeply about something’ and cud chewing are definitions of the same word.  Think about that cow chewing its cud, and its jaws moving 40,000 times a day!  This is what ruminating or meditation is all about.

The word of God says that you will be prosperous and successful if you meditate on the scripture and are careful to do what it says! Joshua 1:8.  ‘Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.’  Keep in mind that Joshua only had what was called ‘the Book of the Law.’  We now have the whole Bible to meditate on! Chew on it over and over again, ‘think deeply about it’.  Slowly digest every word!

You will find that the words of God are ‘life to those that find them and health to one’s whole body’. Proverbs 4:20-22.  ‘My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words.  Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.’

This is what God commanded the Israelites to do with His words!  It is a good word for us today!
‘And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.’
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NKJV.

In other words, meditate (chew on the words of God) over and over until it becomes part of you, teach them to your children, talk about them all the time, look at life through the word of God as if it is written on your forehead, on your eyes or on your glasses!  Write it on sticky notes and put them on your mirror, in the kitchen, on door jams.  Anywhere you can see them regularly!
This is how we live, ‘not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ and find the ‘abundant life’ in Jesus Christ. Matthew 4:4, John 10:10.

May I give you a recommendation?  This how I studied the word of God and found it very helpful.  Read one book of the bible every day for 30 days beginning with the ‘love’ book, the book of 1 John.  Then do the same with one of the gospels for the next 30 days.   Alternate between the letters and the gospels.  Read at least one Psalm or Proverb a day. Keep in mind, this is only one of many guides to help you learn the word of God.  You are not under any law, if you skip a day don’t feel guilty.  If at any time while you are reading you sense that the Holy Spirit wants you to meditate on one or more scriptures, stop and do so.  You are not, as I said before, under any law that says you have to complete one book of the bible every day!  In fact, some larger books you might consider dividing in half, reading only one half for 30 days.

If you find yourself (Heaven forbid) going to sleep while you are trying to read, you can always do what Pastor Jerry Seville did to learn and digest the word of God……Sit on the edge of your bathtub.  I GUARANTEE YOU WILL STAY AWAKE! and reap the rewards of knowing what you have in this wonderful God we serve!

I use ‘Strongs Exaustive Concordance’ online at biblestudytools.com.  https://www.biblestudytools.com/concordances/strongs-exhaustive-concordance/
It has a ‘browse’ feature where you can browse any book in the bible, and any verse within that book.  It has an exhaustive concordance where you can look up a word or phrase and it will list every scripture where that word or phrase is used in the bible.  It also makes available several commentaries to help you study the word.

You can also type in a scripture on google and it will tell you where it occurs in the bible and is more often than not, accompanied with a sermon on the subject!