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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Study Rm 12:2, Jn 8:32

As I sat down to write this sermon words of wisdom from one of our own kept running through my mind, “Part of a pastor’s job is to have time to study.” I fully agree with the person who said this - part of my job is to dwell in the word, listening for where God is leading me for a sermon, a Bible study or a conversation. However, its not just my job to study because I’m a pastor. It is my job, all of our jobs, to study the Word of God because we are Christian. 
Part of the revolution of Protestantism under the leadership of Martin Luther was to make the Bible accessible and in the hands of everyone, not just the priest. However, now that the battle has been fought and won, and many of us own more than one Bible, I wonder how many people actually take time to read it? And not only read it, but also to study it as a spiritual discipline. 
All spiritual disciplines exist for the same purpose, to transform us. However, just as the discipline of physical exercise takes time to transform our body, so any spiritual discipline takes time to transform our hearts and spirits. In fact, transformation is often a long, slow, process, which turns far too many well meaning people away. They try a discipline for a while, but don’t see immediate results so they give up. 
In order to be transformed we must be both willing to keep going, even when we don’t see or feel or sense a change right away. And we must be willing to bring ourselves before God - the very One who wants to transform us. If there are people who turn away from spiritual disciplines because they don’t like the hard work, there are just as many who turn away because they don’t actually want to spend time, alone with God. Instead they like to be in the vicinity of God or pretend to be busy for God. Come to church and be close to other people who are close to God, hoping that relationship rubs off. Of course that is not how any relationship, and especially our relationship with God, functions and blossoms. We may sense someone else’s depth in their spiritual lives, but they cannot transmit it to us. All they can do is make us want to seek out our own growth, our own deep relationship with the Holy One. 
What I like about the discipline of study is that there is no way anyone else can put in the hard work and time for us. It really is something we must do  - just as we had to study when we were in school. But the reward is so much greater than studying for a test - the reward is simply spending time with Jesus because he wants to be with us. We don’t enter into the discipline of study because we should do it, but because we also want to spend time with Jesus, the one who desires us. 
I was a child who loved school. I loved the challenge. Learning new things. I still love to learn. I devour books, soaking in what they have to teach me. I love dwelling in scripture, not just the words written there, but the spirit and context in which they were written. Reflecting back I think my love for learning came from my parents, who are both vivacious readers. I think we were some of the only kids in our neighborhood who had just about every family vacation turn into a history lesson. How many other children can claim they went to a museum at the beach? We also had additional books that we read, selected each summer for the coming school year, outside of the assigned curriculum. Studying was just part of who we were and still are today.
However, I have many friends who didn’t like learning. Studying didn’t come easy for them - and it was often undergirded by fear. If they didn’t get a certain grade on a report or a test they would be punished. To this day those friends still don’t like studying. To them learning was linked with duty, which caused resistance instead of fostering love. 
Much is the same with our study of scripture. Some of us grew up in households where curiosity about the Word of God was fostered, encouraged, and as a result there is a natural love there. Others grew up in places where the study of scripture was frowned upon or perhaps forced, so there is residual resistance today. Still others, never had the opportunity to figure out if they love to study or not - and as a result they fear that they don’t know enough to start studying now - thus giving up without even trying. 
Maybe you recognize yourself in one of those scenarios or maybe you having a different inclination towards studying scripture altogether. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the discipline of study is that we have bought into the bondage of false teaching. We have come to believe that studying the scripture is no different than devotional scripture reading, and that ultimately it is about what I feel when I read a text instead of what is being said. 
To fight off that bondage we need to engage scripture in four different ways. First, we need to have a consistent, repetitious way to engage the Bible. We need to make reading and studying scripture a habit. Maybe ask someone else to promise to study scripture at the same time every day or ask you about what you are studying, in order to hold you accountable. The study of scripture is not meant to be something that we do occasionally or only on Sundays. Its meant to be done every day. 
Secondly, we need to concentrate on the scripture. We need to pay attention to what is written or said for Biblical instruction. We need to seek to study scripture in a place where we can at least try to limit distractions. 
Thirdly, we need to seek comprehension. The truth is that the Bible can be confusing. But it also has limitless possibility, even in the midst of all of that confusion to move us towards knowledge if we desire it. In today’s scripture we find Paul calling the Church to a new way of thinking - one where knowledge leads to service. We aren’t seeking to comprehend the Bible just so we can feel smart, we are seeking to find the knowledge that can free us to serve others. Free us to new truths and insights. Free us to be more fully in love with God.
Lastly, we need to reflect upon what we are reading, asking what significance the part of the Bible we are studying has for our daily life. However, a word of caution. You cannot skip the other three steps of studying scripture just to get to this one. The discipline of study demands the entire process, not just this part. If you are tempted to read the Bible just to figure out what it has for you today, perhaps consider joining a Bible study or small group that uses study guides and discussion to walk through all four movements of study. We need to look at scripture in its context, what it meant when it was written, instead of just what we think it means today. 

What are you studying that is helping you seek truth and freedom today? What are you studying that demands humility - admitting that you don’t understand or know everything? What questions do you have about scripture that you can engage through study? Notice, that the question is not are you studying scripture. Remember this is one of our tasks as Christians. To be in the Word. Daily. So again I ask, what are you studying that can lead to transformation? Amen. 

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