{"id":11623,"date":"2016-08-17T01:30:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-study-gods-word\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:30:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:03","slug":"why-study-gods-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-study-gods-word\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY STUDY GOD\u2019S WORD?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>2 TIMOTHY 2<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>\u201cDo your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who \u2026 correctly handles the word of truth\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(2 Timothy 2:15)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>It may seem an odd question to ask\u2014Why study the Bible?\u2014especially when you probably wouldn\u2019t be reading this if you didn\u2019t believe that such a study is either necessary or at least in some way profitable. But too often we do things simply for the sake of doing them. There is certainly nothing sacred about the first day of year, but it is as good a time as any to ask ourselves anew why we do what we do.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Though there are several compelling reasons to study the Bible, there are two common excuses for not studying Scripture. The first usually offered is that the Bible is difficult to understand and only highly skilled theologians with technical training are equipped for the task. This, however, is too often what we want to hear in order to quiet our consciences for neglecting our duty of studying the Scriptures.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The sixteenth-century Reformers answered this excuse by advocating the <i>perspicuity<\/i> of Scripture, meaning the Scripture\u2019s clarity. They maintained not that all parts of Scripture are equally clear, but that the Bible is necessarily clear in its basic message. This means that if we can read, we can, with the Spirit\u2019s illumination, grasp the essentials.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The second excuse is that the Bible is too boring. We complain that we need someone to \u201cmake the Bible come alive\u201d for us, but it is alive, and its words make us come alive. There is nothing dull about the drama, passion, pathos, crime, devotion, and real life depicted in Scripture. The ancient settings may seem foreign to us, but the struggles and issues biblical characters faced are the same ones we also face.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>As followers of the Lord Jesus, however, we should be motivated to study the Bible in order to continue growing in the things we have learned. We need to deepen our understanding of the backgrounds and contexts of scriptural books in order to better understand and apply to our lives the truths they contain.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Genesis 1\u20132<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Matthew 1<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Our ultimate goal is to be pleasing to God in all   of life. Certainly for the believer, a critical part of life is our handling   and understanding of the Bible. As you begin another year of reading and   study, commit yourself to the long-term goal of being found faithful to the   task of presenting yourself as a workman who correctly handles the word of   truth. Though a lifetime goal, it is achieved through patient daily practice.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Deuteronomy 6:4\u20139 \u2022 Joshua 1:6\u20139 \u2022 2 Timothy 3:14\u201317<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>thursday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>january<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 TIMOTHY 2 \u201cDo your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who \u2026 correctly handles the word of truth\u201d (2 Timothy 2:15). It may seem an odd question to ask\u2014Why study the Bible?\u2014especially when you probably wouldn\u2019t be reading this if you didn\u2019t believe that such a study is either &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-study-gods-word\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;WHY STUDY GOD\u2019S WORD?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}