Throughout these years I have not lost the
hunger and desire to study and meditate on His word. Though there were times when the fervency of
my study time waned and there were days when the immediacy was not so immediate
but even in the lowest of times I do not remember long periods of drought in
the Word. My normal morning routine
consists of time in prayer and study before I spend time with others. I give the Lord my attention in the morning as
I am waking up and I do my best to spend time with Him in prayer before I close
my eyes to sleep at night.
My thought and direction for this post is
wrapped around the thought, “What has happened to the church and her people?” I
have noticed a drastic change in the hearts and minds of believers especially over
the past ten to fifteen years. The
desire for spending time in His word and meditating on His Word does not seem
to be much of a priority with many who are called Christian today. The concern for the lost is still there because
that is a number that is a publishable number in the weekly bulletin. They want to know who and how many decisions
for salvation there have been made and how many visitors darken the church
door. Sadly they do not seemed to be
concerned about how many are darkening the back door as they leave the church
looking for somewhere else to go. There
is a sure direction that is noticeable in the church today one that is directed
solely toward new believer’s. This theme
is not denominational specific and can be found in a variety of churches. This theme is the message that studying the
Word of God is not important nor is it really important that we spend time
reading the Word either. This my friend
is not the message of the God of Heaven, it is not the message of Jesus the Son
of God, nor is it a message of the Word itself.
God’s desire for all men is to have a
relationship with His Son Jesus. If we
in turn surrender to His call and accept Christ as Saviour then the second
desire of God for man is put into place which is that we become like Jesus. He want us to emulate Christ, He want us to be
like the early believers. Acts 11:26, “And when he had found him, he brought him unto
Antioch. And it came to pass, that a
whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first
in Antioch.” Here in this
passage we find the calling and direction of the church, they found others,
bought them to the church, they taught them the Word which resulted in an
amazing transformation. We find that
instead of being called “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians” (Acts
2:9-11), or where ever they came from.
We find that they were all “Called Christians,” because they
had spent time with Christ, because they spent time with other believers and
most importantly because they were “taught”. They did not adopt the
name because it was cool; they were given the name because the people of
Antioch could tell that they had spent time with Jesus.
So, how much of the Scriptures are we as
believers supposed to involve ourselves with?
We do find in 2 Timothy 3:16-17,
“All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (17) That the man of
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” All Scripture is given and profitable for all
good works. So without too much
presupposition I think I can say that as a believer I should try to grasp all
of the Scriptures. The Bible does go on
to say in 2 Timothy 2:15 that we are
to “Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.” Study the Word, we are not to just read the
Word. Why is it important for the believer (every
believer) to study the Word of God? I
believe that Jesus gives the best answer to this question when He said, “Search
the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they
which testify of me.” (John 5:39)
It takes more than just fellowship and
community to grow a believer it takes the Word of God. It is the responsibility of all believers and
not just the pastor to study the Word. We
see here in Acts 17:10-11, “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul
and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of
the Jews. (11) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures
daily, whether those things were so.”
This passage does not just single out the pastor and elders, it is
referring to “the Bereans” all the believers in Berea as a whole, these people
were praised because they studied the Scriptures.
The real question then becomes, “Do we follow
the Bible and what Christ said or do we sit back and celebrate our new level of
Mediocrity?”
More to come…
