This being my first installment in Pastor's Pruning I press to make it profound and stimulating. I will probably be neither. Many blogs come across as a rant, rave or the need of a bully pulpit. My direction of this blog is to try to review something I have taught, to think outloud about something I struggle with or to preview where we will be digging into in future classes at Southwood.
So this being my first installment let's discuss what it is to be a student of the Word of God. Right off I lost a few, but please hang on. Many today enter the forum of the church to hear a message that will give comfort, make them feel good or tell them how to get out of the mess they are in. Is that the purpose of studying the Word of God? I think not. May it accomplish as much, Sure!.
Here is what I was taught many years ago as to the mind of a student. As we come to the Word of God and open its pages we must right off the bat know this is not human viewpoint and this Word wants to teach us Divine viewpoint. To think what God thinks. What about sin? What does God have to say about it. What about salvation? What does God say about it? Pick a topic and see what God has to say about it.
We only have two major hurdles. One, we often get in the way. We need to let God speak the truth through his Word. Second, we are to be diligent. Study is not liken to a microwave, it doesn't come instantly. It takes time and effort. It takes repetition and prayer. It takes sweat and sometimes tears.
A professor once said, "As you dig you will find gold in them there hills". But that requires the right tools and knowing the hills. Study is not sitting in a class just taking in the word. That would make you a sponge. Study is not having lots of notebooks filled up. That would make you a library. A student discovers and when he finds it becomes his/hers.
Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
This should be our desire, too.