Tag Archives: study the Bible

April 4, 2022 · 5:43 AM

Application Is Key

My son and his friend climbed up into the treehouse part of his old swing set the other day. They immediately came back down to tell me how dirty it was in there and that it was covered in leaves. Then they wanted to know if they could clean it out. A small broom was useful in clearing out the leaves and paper towels helped them wipe everything down. Then the friend came down to tell me that she was able to put her hand through one of the boards. I told my son to get out as I walked over to it. Sure enough, several boards had rotted through where the leaves had piled up. Until I can replace the boards, the treehouse is off limits.

As I laid back down in my hammock, jokingly I thought, “But I have buckets of water seal in the garage. How could it have rotted through?” That thought was met with another one that said, “It doesn’t matter how much water seal you have if you never apply it!” My mind then went to James 1:22 that tells us to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only. Many of us have read the Bible and even memorized it. We’ve stored it in our minds, but if we don’t apply it into our lives, things can still fall apart and rot through. It’s not enough to know God’s Word. We must do something with it.

One of my favorite verses is Joshua 1:8 because it gives God’s secret to success in life. It says, “Be sure that the book of the Law is always read in your worship. Study it day and night, and make sure that you obey everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (GNT). We can read it, hear it and study it, but if we don’t obey and apply it, we miss out on the blessings it offers. If we want to guard against rot in our heart and find success in this life and the next, we must apply God’s principles to our lives and live it out. Application is the key to unlocking all that God has for you. Put it to the test and watch Him move in your life.

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March 22, 2021 · 5:54 AM

Hidden Treasure

Not long ago, I took my son and his friend for a walk. When we got to the front of our neighborhood, I asked them if they’d like to climb down the 20 foot drop off to go down to the river bed. Their eyes got wide with excitement and definitely wanted to. When we got to the bottom, they began scouring the ground for rocks. One of them found a red rock and exclaimed, “I found a ruby!” Another one held up a black rock and yelled back, “I found obsidian!” They would also pick up other rocks and ask what kind of gems they were. Even though there weren’t any real gems down there, they were searching hard for them, turning over each rock and examining them. They wanted to find something of value badly and it was difficult to pull them away from that area.

I’ve been reading the Bible chronologically this year. Today will be my last reading in the first five books of the Bible. There’s a lot more about the Law in those books than there are stories, but over and over again, God says that these words bring life. He wanted them, and us, to bind them on our heart, our arms and our forehead. He wanted us to treasure His Word so that we would obey it. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God said, “I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God’s blessing and God’s curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life” (GNT). The choice was to obey or disobey His Word. He wants us to value and cherish what He says. If we value it, we will search through it, seek to understand it and obey it.

Davis was someone who valued God’s Word. He treasured it and thought of it as such. In Psalm 19:10 he wrote, “The rarest treasures of life are found in his truth. That’s why God’s Word is prized like others prize the finest gold” (TPT). You and are need to not only treasure God’s Word, but to search through it like we’re on a treasure hunt. Dig through it daily, hold it up, examine it and ask questions about it. What may seem ordinary or old fashioned to many, actually contains hidden treasures, real truth and ultimately life. If we treat His Word as ordinary, it will lose its value in our lives and we’ll begin to see it as just a good book instead of God’s treasure given to us. When you read the Bible, don’t just read it to check off a Christian duty box. Search through it as if you’re searching for treasure and you will find the rarest of gems and life along the way.

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Study Time

One of the things I don’t like to reveal about myself is how little I need to study in order to memorize things. In school, I didn’t have to stay up all night before a test. I simply needed to read my notes once and I was good. Sometimes I could go to someone in my class, ask for the flash cards they made and read them from my locker to the class in order to do well on the test. The ones who have to sit, read and pore over facts hated that studying came easy to me so I began to hide it. I still have to study things if I’m going to put them in my brain, but it just requires a lot less effort than it does for other people. The other thing is that once I’ve memorized it, I usually don’t forget it.

Part of our Christian growth is to study God’s Word. Each one of us must take time to dig in, memorize it, break it down and learn it. The methods you used in school will be helpful to you in studying what God has said. You have to look at things in context, understand the culture, know the writer and look at the different ways the words were used in their original language. Studying takes effort and time no matter who you are. Over and over in Scripture we are told to study the Bible so we will have better understanding, be better teachers, be more mature in our faith, experience growth and ultimately have success in life. How much studying have you been doing lately? We live in the Information Age. So much is available to us to study God’s Word. Don’t just read God’s Word, study it to show yourself approved who can rightly divide the word of truth.

Here are some Bible verses on studying God’s Word.

1. I’m asking GOD for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.

Psalm 27:4 MSG

2. If you point out these instructions to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished [through study] on the words of the faith and of the good [Christian] doctrine which you have closely followed.

1 Timothy 4:6 AMP

3. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

Joshua 1:8 NLT

4. “Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15 AMP

5. I study your instructions; I examine your teachings.

Psalm 119:15 GNT

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School’s Out

As a kid, this was one of my favorite weeks of the year because it was the beginning of summer. For the next three months, school was out and summer was in session. Eventually i graduated high school and then started taking college courses. They had the option to take summer courses. You could either take a summer break or you could take classes through the summer and finish college early. In either case, the time came when there was no more summer vacation, and it was time to put my education to use.

The same is true of our life with Jesus. If you grew up in church, you probably went to Sunday School or children’s church where they taught you the stories of the Bible. They helped you to memorize Bible verses, learn the books of the Bible and to have fun at church. But just like school, eventually your time ran out and it was time to go to big church. The learning didn’t stop, but the environment changed. It was less about the stories and more about how to apply them to your life.

Colossians 2:7 says, “You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving” (MSG). There comes a time when we need to not just study the Bible, but to apply it in our lives too. What good is knowledge if it’s never applied? Our faith grows and gets stronger when it’s tested and proven. Make today the start of being a Bible doer instead of just a Bible studier. Take one thing you’ve learned, apply it and live it out. Then keep adding to it day by day until you’re living a life of faith.

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