Pastor Jim submitted the following thoughts on January 24, 2015...
Greetings Friends:
PLEASE READ: 2 Timothy 2:15
“Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing rightly handling and skillfully teaching the Word of Truth” (AMP).
As we’re well aware the Super Bowl is in one week. Players from both teams are investing time and energy in preparation. They are practicing on the playing field, they are having meetings and conversations, they are assisting and encouraging each other so they will perform better, they are talking to and listening to the head coach, and they are studying the play book. These players know that if they are not working as a cohesive unit executing plays from the same play book, they cannot win on the playing field. In general, athletes in any sport cannot be successful or play to their fullest potential without practice and without studying the play book. If they are not prepared, it will show on game day.
The same is true for Christians. When people ask us about our faith, ask us questions about matters of life, ask about what our church is doing to be a relevant presence for Jesus Christ in the community, or ask us general questions about the churches we attend, are we prepared to respond (1 Peter 3:15)? When challenges of life come upon us and we must step-up-to-the-plate, do we find ourselves unprepared (Psalm 119:9-11)?
Do we have a regular and daily time of reading and studying the Bible? Do we have a time and place where we can focus on the Scriptures or do we fit it in IF there is time? As we are on the playing field of life trying to execute the correct plays, have we consulted the “play book”? As we serve in our various churches, is the “play book” used in our decisions and execution of those decisions? Busy as everyone is study habits must be created intentionally.
God’s plan of redemption for the world wasn’t an improvisation or some knee-jerk, spur-of-the-moment idea by God. It was well planned, even before the creation of the world as we read in Ephesians 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:20. The Apostle Paul writes this same thing in Galatians 4:4-5. From Genesis to Revelation we read that God is a God of order, of process, of preparation, of vision, of proper action.
Friends, we are still in January and this is as good a time as any for us to reestablish good study habits with the Scriptures. And as we daily ingest the word of God, through the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures will be faithful to us. As we heard in a recent sermon, the word of God is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12 — see also Acts 7:38 and 1 Peter 1:23).
Shalom,
Pastor Jim
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