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...the Bible tells me so:
“It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ ” (Matthew 4:4 NRSV; see Deuteronomy 8:3). According to Jesus, we who live to please God must gain our spiritual sustenance from every word God spoke. Every word, hmm!
Sometimes I feel like the writer of the Hebrews letter, when he said, “About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” (5:11-14)
Some are content with what they learned as a child. Actually, they feel as if they learned too much. Some are unwilling to put out any more effort to learn. If it is not simple, they do not want it. Some have learned every Scripture that they will ever learn. They know enough Scriptures for what they believe. They are not willing to learn any more. Some are simply too lazy to do the work necessary to profit from Bible study. If it is not easy, they are not interested.
I have come to challenge your thinking, your preconceptions and your beliefs. Who knows? I may be wrong in my beliefs. Although I am very convinced, show me how to be right. Who knows? You may be wrong in your beliefs. I will show you how to be right.
Either way, I look to the words of Jesus, how He said, “The one who rejects Me and does not receive My word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge” (John 12:48). You and I will be judged based on what Jesus said, not what we have believed. May we be right together!
I think of those
Jews from the town of
In serious Bible
study, we learn the difference between ancient and modern definitions of
christ, baptism, church, presbyters, bishops, shepherds and saints. We learn who,
in the New Testament, the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the scribes were. We
learn who, in the Old Testament, the Rechabites, the Hittites and the Amorites
were. We learn why various places, for example,
In serious Bible study, we learn the value of various translations and the use of tools, namely Bible dictionaries and original language lexicons, to help us appreciate those translations. We learn of the value of context of a passage, whether the immediate context of the text to help us understand its meaning, or the overall context of the Scripture to discover, using a concordance or cross references, other passages that teach similar things.
In serious Bible study, we learn the value of those books that provide background information, for example, of Bible lands and Bible cultures. We learn the value of commentaries, both good and bad.
Ask me about what
books that I would recommend for further Bible study. You may reach me by
writing,
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I know. Some might think that Festus’ words apply to me, too. He said, “You are out of your mind!... Too much learning is driving you insane!” (Acts 26:24) My goal, however, is to “stand mature and [be] fully assured in everything that God wills” (Colossians 4:12). So then, bring “the books, and above all the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13), I have more studying to do.
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