Have you ever seen a straight river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it \u201cmeandering.\u201d Why are rivers crooked?Because the natural tendency of a river is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked, and they always run downhill.<\/p>\n
Some people are like rivers. They are too lazy and immature to put forth much effort into walking with God. For them it\u2019s easier to watch T.V. than to pray and easier to read their newspaper than their Bible.64<\/p>\n
The only way to keep a broken vessel full is by keeping the faucet turned on.65<\/p>\n
Consider the difference between a strong and a weak cup of tea. The same ingredients\u2014water and tea\u2014are used for both. The difference is that the strong cup of tea results from the tea leaves\u2019 immersion in the water longer, allowing the water more time to get into the tea and the tea into the water. The longer the steeping process, the stronger the cup of tea.<\/p>\n
In the same way, the length of time we spend in God\u2019s Word determines how deeply we get into it and it gets into us. Just like the tea, the longer we are in the Word, the \u201cstronger\u201d we become.66<\/p>\n
The Bible is so deep that theologians can never touch the bottom, yet so shallow that babes cannot drown.67<\/p>\n
There are only two ways you can study the Bible:<\/p>\n
1. Studying it with your mind made up.<\/p>\n
2. Studying it to let it make up your mind.68<\/p>\n
There is a basic difference between an explorer and a tourist. The tourist travels quickly, stopping only to observe the highly noticeable or publicized points of interest. The explorer, on the other hand, takes his time to search out all that he can find.<\/p>\n
Too many of us read the Bible like a tourist and then complain that our devotional times are fruitless. It is necessary that we take time to explore the Bible. Notable nooks and crannies will appear as we get beneath the surface.69<\/p>\n
A U.S. Army officer told of the contrast in his pupils during two different eras of teaching at the artillery training school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1958\u201360 the attitude was so lax that the instructors had a problem getting the men to stay awake to listen. During the 1965\u201367 classes, however, the men, hearing the same basic lectures, were alert and took copious notes. The reason: these men knew that in less than six weeks they would be facing the enemy in Vietnam.<\/p>\n
One reason that Bible study seems to be irrelevant to many Christians is that they have no interaction with non-Christians, no vital ministry to growing believers, and no personal and internal struggle for godliness, all of which are factors that bring the truths of the Bible to apply to life.70<\/p>\n
There is a story about a teenage boy who was deeply interested in scientific subjects, especially astronomy. So his father bought him a very expensive telescope. Since the young fellow had studied the principles of optics, he found the instrument to be most intriguing. He took it apart, examined the lenses, and made detailed calculations on the distance of its point of focus. The youth became so absorbed in gaining a technical knowledge of the telescope itself that he never got around to looking at the stars. He knew a lot about that fine instrument, but he missed seeing the wonders of the heavens.<\/p>\n
As Christians, to know all the facts and figures contained in the Bible is not the end for which God has given us this Book. The purpose is that we might see God and know him.71<\/p>\n
The story is told of a small fishing village where, for many years, a flock of sea gulls fed on the scraps the fishermen left. All was fine and good for the sea gulls until eventually the fishing became poor and the villagers moved down the coast to a location where fish were plentiful. The sea gulls did not follow the fishermen and\u2014because they had lived off the scraps of the fishermen and had never learned to feed themselves\u2014the entire flock of birds died.<\/p>\n
Believers who feed only on what others teach them are like these foolish sea gulls.72<\/p>\n
Mortimer J. Adler, in How to Read a Book<\/i>, has observed that the one time people read for all they are worth is when they are in love and are reading a love letter. They read every word three ways. They read between the lines and in the margins. They read the whole in terms of the parts, and each part in terms of the whole. They grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to insinuation and implication. They perceive the color of words, the order of phrases, and the weight of sentences. They may even take the punctuation into account. Then, if never before or after, they read carefully and in depth.<\/p>\n
So should believers read the \u201clove letter\u201d that the Eternal Lover of our souls has given to us so that we may better know him and his purposes.73<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone. Leave the beaten track occasionally and drive into the woods. You will be certain to see something you have never seen before. It will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. Follow it up, explore all around. One discovery will lead to another and, before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about\u201d (attributed to Alexander Graham Bell).74<\/p>\n
In an interview, Billy Graham was asked this question: \u201cIf you had to live your life over again, what would you do differently?\u201d<\/p>\n
His answer: \u201cOne of my great regrets is that I have not studied enough. I wish I had studied more and preached less. People have pressured me into speaking to groups when I should have been studying and preparing. Donald Barnhouse said that if he knew the Lord was coming in three years, he would spend two of them studying and one preaching. I\u2019m trying to make it up\u201d (Christianity Today<\/i>, September 12, 1977, p. 19).75<\/p>\n
A story is told of a devout father whose son was studying for the ministry. The son decided to go to Europe for an advanced degree, and the father worried that his simple faith would be spoiled by sophisticated, unbelieving professors. \u201cDon\u2019t let them take Jonah away from you,\u201d he admonished, figuring the swallowed-by-a-great-fish story might be the first part of the Bible to go.<\/p>\n
Two years later when the son returned, the father asked, \u201cDo you still have Jonah in your Bible?\u201d<\/p>\n
The son laughed. \u201cJonah! That story isn\u2019t even in your<\/i> Bible!\u201d<\/p>\n
The father replied, \u201cIt certainly is! What do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Again the son laughed and insisted, \u201cIt\u2019s not in your Bible. Go ahead, show it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The old man fumbled through his Bible, looking for the Book of Jonah, but he couldn\u2019t find it. At last he checked the table of contents for the proper page. When he turned there, he discovered the three pages comprising Jonah had been carefully cut from his Bible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did it before I went away,\u201d said the son. \u201cWhat\u2019s the difference whether I lose the Book of Jonah through studying under non-believers or you<\/i> lose it through neglect?\u201d76<\/p>\n
In one of his Just-So Stories<\/i>, Rudyard Kipling pulled together all of the interrogative pronouns of the English language in a bit of poetic doggerel, and these probing pronouns will open up any subject thoroughly:<\/p>\n
I keep six honest serving men<\/p>\n
(They taught me all I knew);<\/p>\n
Their names are What and Why and When<\/p>\n
And How and Where and Who.77<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever seen a straight river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it \u201cmeandering.\u201d Why are rivers crooked?Because the natural tendency of a river is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked, and they always run downhill. Some people are like rivers. … Continue reading “BIBLE, STUDY OF”<\/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-13346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13346","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=13346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}