Sunday, March
8, 2009
What is your knowledge of the Bible?
- The seventh commandment is "Thou shalt not
commit adultery."
- Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.
- Noah's
wife was Joan of Ark.
- The Epistles were wives of the Apostles.
- When a Christian having only one wife - this
is called monotony.
My brothers and sisters, imagine these mistakes could be quite
consequential. But there
is a lot of difference between, "Thou shalt
not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not admit adultery.
Today, I want to address the multitude of Bible verses commending the
necessity of hiding God's Word
in our hearts and living according to
His word. My Bible tells me, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Our eternal well-being
depends heavily upon our attitudes toward
the revealed word of God. The
process of letting God's word dwell in us richly, involves more than
Bible study,
it also involves prayer, fasting, meditation.
What is Bible study? It is more than reading the Bible, •••
we must
read His word. It is different from meditating upon Scripture although
Bible study never reaches its ultimate
purpose until the verses are
applied to daily life through prayer, meditation, and may I add
obedience. Meditation
is devotional; but Bible study is analytical.
Meditation will relish a word, Bible study will explicate it. And
although meditation and study often overlap, they constitute two
distinct experiences. Bible study provides a certain
objective
framework within which meditation can successfully function. Bible
study may involve discussion and
interactions with others about
Scripture. But when the proper preparation for the discussion is
lacking there
can only really be no more than ignorance informing
ignorance.
Everybody is entitled to an opinion and most
everybody has one. But an
informed opinion is much more helpful than an uninformed one. Bible
study is a more
objective approach to Scripture in which through
disciplined examination of Scripture we seek to discover exactly what
is being communicated.
In His Name
Reverend John O. Veasey, Jr.
