I am taking a class at church I am really excited about. It is a class based on the book “Grasping God’s Word”. It is a class on how to study the Bible. This book is kind of an intermediate “how-to” book. It goes into a lot more detail and depth than most of the popular guides out there, but it is not quite at the academia level of a graduate level hermeneutics text, and also has a great deal of focus on the practical vs just the academic. By God’s grace and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, I am able to read at least some Biblical texts and get the meaning out of them. But, I have so much to learn and mature. All scripture is God-breathed, living, and active and has a message for us. I know with certainty that I could spend eternity studying the Bible and learn something new every day, and I so look forward to that. I have just been astonished and amazed at how much I am being taught through our pastor out of 1st Kings right now. Up until now, to me, it had been a history of Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel, but I was missing a ton of theology that is also there. Certainly the obvious themes and warnings of disobedience, idolatry, etc were there and I could see those. But, with careful study, 1st Kings is just incredibly rich and has so much for us and reveals so much about God’s patience. love, and grace, and also His personal concern for each and every one of us. The Holy Spirit just reveals so much to me each and every week and I am so grateful, and hope I am going through a spiritual “growth-spurt” right now.
So this leads to my excitement at the opportunity to learn and focus on studying God’s word more purposefully in my quiet time with God. By God’s grace, I’ve been learning and growing in my Bible study up until now, and this has hopefully been bearing fruit in that I’ve been able to facilitate Bible studies and God has been glorified and people have learned more about Him through our study. But, I’ve felt crippled. I’ve been able to pass along key themes, to read commentaries and compile pretty detailed studies that have helped myself and certainly only through the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment the people I’ve been studying with to grow. This has been wonderful. I am so hopeful that God will help me to grow and mature more. Certainly these will be tools that I’ll always depend upon, but I think there is so much more as I learn and grow to be ever more dependent upon God directly, and I think this class only through the blessing of the Holy Spirit may help to facilitate some growth and maturity in the area of greater dependence on God only for revelation and understanding of the message He is delivering to me in the scripture I am studying, and certainly help me to see and overcome some of the biases and predispositions I bring towards the message God has for me.
So anyway, I feel like I am getting a little long winded, but wanted to close with a few things. First, is a quote/theme I want to try to live by in my Bible Study:
“The Bible is not what whatever we want it to be”
This goes to my predispositions, and to the postmodern culture we live in now where our culture tries to reject the notion of ultimate truth, given to us by God. I want so much to not miss the message God is communicating to us in scripture by my own predispositions or biases – by my trying to make the Bible say something to support my own idea vs humbly receiving the truth God has given us in scripture.
The second, is to just share the link to this 1st Kings sermon series. It can be listened to at: Foothills Bible Church: Listen to a Sermon The focus on God’s word and power of that focus is just so wonderful and encouraging and I know everyone who reads this would benefit from hearing this teaching.
Finally, please just pray for me. Pray for God to be glorified by my journey, and that I would be able to grow in my love and dependence upon God, and share the joy of God’s Word and the saving grace of Jesus Christ effectively with anyone God would bring my way.
In Christ,
Kevin