A few verses to get us started on this topic:
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." -2 Timothy 2:15. (I picked the KJV because it drives the point home).
"But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers." -Psalm 1:2-3
"Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone follows My word, he will never see death."-John 8:51
"holding firmly the word of life, so that on the day of Christ I can take pride because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain."-Phillipians 2:16
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ". -Romans 10:17
Why Christian, but no Bible?
It's a real shame that biblical literacy is pretty low nowadays, at least in my little corner of the evangelical world. The Bible is God's Word, it is God-breathed, and it is useful in so many respects of life, in fact, it should be our guide to life. The Bible gives us all the information we need about God, Jesus, how to be saved, how to defeat death, how to live a moral life, and so much more essential information.
We ought to study it every day. We gotta get our mindset right here. What sort of PRIVILEDGE do we have that we can have UNRESTRICTED access to the very Word of the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE Himself? How lucky are we that we have a comprehensive guide to...living life? That we have access to the most important and greatest story/event that has ever been recorded? Yet for so many today, the Bible sits on their shelf collecting dust.
I'll give a break to those who actually don't care and are Christians in name only. But to the self-proclaimed Christians who go to church every Sunday, post Christian stuff on their social media, have a verse in their bio, lift up their hands during worship, and are truly saved believers, but have no idea what the Bible says about most things, what are you doing???
It's not enough to just have the Holy Spirit to just have Jesus. The reason is, the Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures, and Jesus is revealed and explained in the scriptures. Doctrine is found in the Bible, and doctrine is massively important. God chose to reveal His will to us through the Bible, so we should spend lots of time and read it! If this is the way that God chose to help us learn more about Him, then why aren't we taking every living opportunity to do so? I can give much more elaborate reasoning, but I think the issue really is this simple.
We all want to represent Christ well. We all want to have helpful, true, and practical answers to life's questions. The Bible has all those things! Spend some time each day to read it, pray through it, and watch the Spirit work! Don't be caught off guard when you need to answer a tough question for others or for yourself.
Bible Study
First, God's people compiled ancient accounts and revelations made from the Lord to His prophets, as well as inspired writings, written by men filled with the Spirit, and those became the Old Testament. The Lord spoke His words, and His disciples as well as other eyewitnesses collected them along with accounts of Jesus' life and those became the Gospels. Jesus gave His disciples authority to generate new inspired text, which became the epistles. There is so much history and other information behind these writings, you would have no way of learning about them just from reading a modern English Bible.
As mentioned in the comic, Bible Study is a seriously complex discipline. Historically thousands upon thousands of people have devoted their lives to this discipline and to help others understand the Bible better. God placed these people in the world so we as believers can all work together as a unit to study the Bible! Isn't that exciting? You basically stand side by side with William Tyndale (who got executed for translating the Bible, btw), in this endeavor!
I probably will make more posts about how to study the Bible in the future. So stay tuned for that.
A Few Caviats
I'm not saying everyone needs to get on the level of a theologian, or a scholar. I'm also not saying you need to get all this stuff from the Bible only. Some of us just aren't oriented toward studying, and I understand that! We are given different gifts.
Again, this is why God gifts us with talented teachers, preachers, translators, scholars, book writers, and more people to help the body of Christ understand God and His word better. I would encourage you to take advantage of the resources put out by faithful people. Of course, beware of false teachers and erroneous teaching!
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