Yes, Galatians has 149 Verses. Ephesians has 155. Philippians gives us 104 Verses, and Colossians is even shorter, 95 Verses. (Little Philemon, also by Paul, has only 25 Verses!)

But in the Old Testament, near the very “center” in fact, is a Giant of a Chapter! The longest in all the Bible! As you likely know, it is Psalm 119.

And here’s the beautiful thing, the longest Chapter in Scripture is about Scripture. It gloriously magnifies THE WORD OF GOD!

The Holy Spirit has divided Psalm 119 into twenty-two (22) clearly marked Paragraphs. These Divisions, Sections are based on the Hebrew alphabet, in fact! Think of the Skill in writing like that, what a Composer He is!

Spurgeon (I think it was him) said the 119th Psalm has 22 Paragraphs, each comparable in size to one of the Psalms of Degrees! (A Group of 15 Psalms beginning at Psalm 120 and continuing through Psalm 134.)

Psalm 119 is fast becoming my favorite Portion of the Bible! And maybe here’s the reason why … the Lord clearly led me to preach through its 176 Verses some years ago as a Pastor. And now, while serving the Lord in many pulpits as a traveling Preacher … He has again (years later, mind you) directed me to this Mammoth Chapter again.

This “trip” is nearly automatic though. We are strolling through the Psalms on our YouTube Channel. One video after another, one Psalm after another … and as of Thursday (October 23, 2025) we shall have reached PSALM 119.

In a way this short Article is not simply designed to introduce folks to the Psalm … but it is also an invitation to come study it with us in detail. Probably 22 Lessons, in fact. Visit YouTube and search for our Channel (Dr. Mike Bagwell) and subscribe. (No charge whatsoever!)

Let’s travel together!

Let’s learn how God’s Word, the Holy Bible, can meet every single need in the life of a growing Christian! Let’s learn why God has “magnified His Word above all His Name.” That’s exactly what Psalm 138:2 claims!

See you soon. And please bring your Bible!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The particular Verse I have in mind has surfaced several times lately in my Bible Study. Especially when preparing for our “Evening Meditation” Bible Study Videos (Watch one of them … uploaded every other night on our YouTube Channel).

Our above-mentioned Verse is found in Zechariah, an Old Testament apocalyptic Book, loaded with prophecy! The divinely inspired Sentence in its context “fits” (“occurs”) the Moment of the Second Coming of Jesus to this earth. A time of Judgment, indeed!

“And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” Zechariah 14:12

As the Lord returns, He interrupts the Battle of Armageddon and … Revelation 19 best describes the awful Event. “And I saw the beast (anti-Christ), and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him (Jesus our Lord) that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant (whole armies) were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” (Revelation 19:19-21)

It is at this Moment that our Zechariah Judgment occurs! Read it again with me please. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”

The Wrath of the Lamb of God is so severe, so very HOT, that He melts (a word I have chosen) the very flesh of these enemies of Israel! He liquifies their eyes! And neutralizes their tongues! (Never again will they curse God’s Chosen People, the Jews! Never again will they look disdainfully upon the “Apple of God’s Eye,” again that’s Israel! Never again will any of them march against the Holy Land, Jerusalem!)

Wow!

If I were unsaved, very frightening!

Yet no one of necessity has to experience that type judgment, damnation. He or she can be “saved” by the Grace of God today and avoid such a horrendous future!

How to be saved?

Let Jesus answer that for us. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24, that simple!

What a choice!

Incineration or Salvation!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Paul the Apostle, while in a Roman prison, wrote to Timothy his young protegee: “The cloke (coat) that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:13)

Paul, a student of the well-known Gamaliel, was quite accustomed to books. See Acts 22:3, specifically naming Paul’s Tutor. However, in time … Paul the reader, became Paul the writer! And as such (consequently) never quit being Paul the student! The student of the Old Testament Scriptures.

I guess books are on my mind because this week we have been moving more of my library from its years-long resting place in a climate-controlled storage unit … to its new home in a little city near our house.

A little slogan I picked up years ago, “READERS ARE LEADERS,” still holds true. But also … readers are workers! It’s hard to concentrate for hours on a single Text! (As in preparing a Sermon God has laid on one’s heart.)

In some ways Solomon certainly was right. “Much study is a weariness of the flesh,” he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:12. (But in other ways much study is a delight, especially analyzing God’s Word!)

I am wondering today, my Preacher friends or my Sunday School teacher friends … have you studied for this week’s Sermon(s) or Lesson(s)?

Studied diligently?

Studied the right kind of books?

There are wrong kinds you know!

Kind worth nothing but burning!

Like the new Christians at Ephesus (a wicked, demon-possessed city) did! “Many of them also which used curious arts (magic) brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.” (Acts 19:19)

All I am asking today …

Let’s be readers to the Glory of God! Careful students of His Word!

And while we are at it … let’s get familiar with some of the great Christian writers of the past!

Paul to Timothy again … “Till I come, give attendance to reading.” (1 Timothy 4:13)

But, and here’s another “warning” … do not let books take the place of THE BOOK in your life, the Word of God! Major on the Bible!

In reading the good Books of yesterday’s spiritual heroes … you are obeying in spirit Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 13:20. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.”

Read a Sermon tonight from one of the giants of the past!

You will spiritually grow thereby …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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If you are a true Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been saved by His indescribable Mercy … GOD LIVES INSIDE YOU! (Titus 3:5 … “According to his mercy he saved us.”)

This of course does not mean that you have become a “god,” and certainly not the “Deity” Himself. We are still ex-sinners, saved by Grace! But still, God inhabits your body!

No one is disagreeing so far, no one who accepts the Bible as Truth. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:19

Yes, the Holy Spirit indwells us Christians!

But my Lesson Title goes further, I think.

GOD LIVES WITHIN US!

Of course, doctrinally the Holy Spirit IS God! (So, there it is, God living within us!)

But today (in a motel room preaching a Revival in a nearby sweet Bible-believing Church) I am enjoying a Verse that may say even more!

Paul is here interceding before the Lord, advancing one of his high-level spiritual prayers. Read this, listen to him: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Quoting Ephesians 3:17-19.

Christ (Jesus) dwelling in our hearts?

Yes!

(Jesus did promise … “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5)

But (from Ephesians 3:17-19 above) a fuller description of that “Indwelling” follows … that we be filled with all the “FULNESS OF GOD!” This must mean the Godhead! The Father and the Son and dear Holy Spirit!

Filling us!

Living within us!

No wonder we are admonished again and again to pursue holy lives.

Never to grieve the Holy Spirit!

Never to offend the Lord Jesus!

Never to neglect God the Father!

Like I said in the Title … “GOD WITHIN!”

And I have Scripture to support my thought.

Better yet, Scripture has given me that thought!

What an honor!

Yet, what responsibility!

“Filled with all the Fulness of God!”

Think about that for a while!

I’ll join you …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The “seed” for the thought I am sharing with you comes from the little Epistle of James. Precisely, James 4:4. Part of the Verse states: “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

The wrong kind of friend, looks like to me, can arouse the righteous “ire” of Almighty God! The noun “enmity” in the verse literally means “hatred!” It actually looks like God reserves the right to “choose” my friends! After all, we do belong to Him! “Ye are not your own.” (1 Corinthians 6:19) And the next Verse boldly proclaims: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Wow!

Here’s another thought about friends, a God Thought. “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go.” Proverbs 22:24

Why?

“Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Proverbs 22:25

Obviously, wrong friends can be dangerous to our spiritual growth!

Godly people need godly friends!

The Book of Proverbs lists at least two dozen (more really) of the kinds of people we need to avoid!

Look … “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” (Proverbs 1:10) In other words, “Learn to say NO!”

The best view of friendship I know is this: “Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” (Daniel 1:9) God gave Daniel this “friend!” And this man (whose name is unknown) helped Daniel navigate through one of the most dangerous events of his life!

Drop the bad so-called “friends.”

Ask the Lord to send you also the right kind of friends!

And the result?

You will help each other, encourage each other in the Lord! “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17

I must close. It’s nearly Church time. I am preaching a Revival this week and (by the way) ask for your sincere prayers. Two more Verses …

“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24, and clearly that Friend is Jesus our Saviour!)

He is my Friend!

Now, just one more Verse, with Jesus talking: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends.” John 15:15

Now, I am His Freind!

Glory to God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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