Too many in the Body of Christ are struggling! Simple fix—Bible
time! We need to spend time studying and reading the Bible for ourselves. Bible
studies are wonderful, but…they cannot replace our private time led by the Holy
Spirit. We are to meditate on the Word of God, and when we are on a regiment of
specific reading, we often don’t do that. That is why it is so important to
make time to read and explore on our own.
I remember when I first started attending a Women’s Bible
study (when I was a babe in Christ) my teacher (who by the way is still my
teacher) would always encourage us to do the assignment, but not stop there.
She gave us the tools on how to research and read more than one translation to
compare how things were worded and pray about those things that were not clear
to us. She was always available to call during the week to discuss any
questions we had. They didn’t even have to pertain to our homework for the
week—she loved (and still does) to talk about the Bible and all it has to
offer.
Often on Facebook I see people posting quotes from their
pastor’s sermon or a Bible study. That is all good and well, but what I don’t
see from these same people, are their quotes or their own thoughts on the Word
of God. Don’t get me wrong, I use the quotes of others too, but I am not a mini
them. I have my own quotes and thoughts, inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself,
but then again—we all should.
God gave us a brain and intelligence and wants us to use
them. All through the Psalms and book of Proverbs it talks about the benefits
of meditating on the Word of God! “I have more insight than
all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.” King
David…Psalms 119:99 (NIV)
It is imperative that we read and meditate
on the Word of God for ourselves. Why? “For the word of God is alive and
active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing
soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
Though I have learned so much through Bible
study classes, my big Ah-ha moments, were always from my private reading and
study time. Example: I can’t tell you how many times I had read or heard, “Jesus
is the head of the Body,” but on a particular day I read it, and—Bam!! I got
it! I mean I really got it and spent days meditating on what that really meant
for me as a Christian. Wow!!
One day I decided to read through the book
of Proverbs, since I kept hearing about all the great pearls of wisdom it held.
But as I started to read, it seemed that everything about pride, being proud or
haughty seemed to scream at me. I shared that with my mentor and we talked
about God’s feelings about us being proud and puffed up. At first I still
didn’t get that the Holy Spirit was illuminating these scriptures for me, and
about me. No, that took a few more days, but then I got it—Bam, Bam…Ouch!!
You might be in a wonderful Bible study and
are learning a lot, but it can’t replace the one-on-one, Holy Spirit led
reading and study. That personal study that can sometimes smack you into reality
like only the Word of God can. That one scripture verse that will resonate in
your being and mind for weeks on end, until it’s burned in your
heart-of-hearts!
This is why so many of us are struggling so
hard and so long—we are not spending the time with God that we need. The little
morning books we use to start our day, (what we call devotionals for lack of a
better word) are often not enough, because for one, we read them and move on.
The key to change is the time to meditate and think on what we have read. To
dig into the Word to see what it is really saying. I have fallen in love with
Biblical History. There are too many of us who don’t even know it exist—but it
does.
As followers of Christ, our roots are in
the Jewish faith. We so often forget that Jesus was a Jew, because most Pastors
don’t teach about Jewish culture, but once we have an understating of the
Jewish ways at the time, it opens up the Bible tremendously for us.
The truth for many in the Body is that we
need to go back to the basics. We need to go over the truths of God and how
they apply to our lives. Not on the assumption that if I do this then God will
do this. No! We need to really get a good understating as to what the death of
Christ did for us, and what it means to pick up His Cross daily. When we can
get past the prosperity (financial) sermons and back to prosperity of the soul
and spirit teachings, then we are going to fair much better.
Time to start asking ourselves and God more
questions about the Bible. Do you realize that when Jesus walked this earth,
Jews were community people? When you read the gospels are you seeing that most
of the people in his life were Jews and there were just a handful of gentiles?
Why is it so hard for so many of us to
really understand the book of Romans? Do you realize that those who wrote the
New Testament were not “aka” Christians? Do you know where the name or
terminology Christian came from? How come we don’t do the Sabbath as the Jews
do? Do you know why folks started going to church on Sunday?
If you don’t already know the answer to
these questions, here’s a good place to explore and learn something new and why
you do the things you do…like go to church on Sunday!
When you read about Persia in the Bible did
you know it is now Iran? When you read about Babylon are you aware it was
renamed Iraq? Do you know when this happened and how the maps of old are
different today?
No comments:
Post a Comment