Bible Study Study To Show Thyself Approved.

[Chopper]

Why Do I Study God's Word So Much?

2Timothy 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

There are folk who wonder why I spend several hours each and every morning studying, not just reading, the Word (Scriptures) of God. There was even a member of CF.net that tried to encourage me to stop studying the Scriptures because of how long I have done it, and rely on the Holy Spirit to teach me. His motives were good, I believe, because He had been doing that with good success.

I wonder, in our average Gospel preaching, Bible believing/teaching, churches in each of our geographical area's, study, not just read, you know, "read the Bible in one year" projects? God's Word? If what I'm hearing in my little sphere of witness is true, not many!

So, why do I? I'm a couple of months shy of 77 years old. I was saved in 1974. You might say, "you've studied because you went to Bible College, yep! You pastored 5 churches, Yep! You are are a Christian Psychologist and counseled folk for many years, Yep! You have taught and counseled for several years on CF.net, Yep! "That's why you study God's Word every morning?" .... Well friends, although those facts that I presented are all true, that's not why I study God's Word. You say, "It's not"??? Nope!

The reason is,,,,Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Lets look at what Greek Professor Dr.Kenneth Wuest has to say about the Word of God, specifically "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This is what I find so interesting about the tail end of this verse. This verse unfolds a great mystery, IMO, that God's Word can, thru serious slow study of Scripture has entrance into my thoughts & intents of my heart, because it's supernaturally alive.

Now, my inner thoughts and even my every day intents are so secret that even I don't really know what I'll think or intend to do in the next hour of my day, isn't that amazing? Now I'm thinking about...Dr. Weust.."The word translated "discerner" further expands and defines the writer’s meaning here. It is kritikos, which comes from krino "to divide or separate," thus "to judge," the usual New Testament meaning being "to sift out and analyze evidence." In the word kritikos, the ideas of discrimination and judgment are blended. Thus, the Word of God is able to penetrate into the furthermost recesses of a person’s spiritual being, sifting out and analyzing the thoughts and intents of the heart"....

The following verses in Romans are what I feel personally, set me up each morning to get the most benefit from my study of God's Word.

Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Ok. lets wrap this up. Sometimes I equate the reason I eat food with the study of God's Word. After I eat a hearty breakfast, I couldn't tell you what brain cells are being vitalized by eating my bacon & eggs. It's the same with studying God's Word.

Since I can't know what God's Word is doing in my heart and mind, I do know, by childlike faith, (it has to be childlike) that the Word of the Logos (Christ Jesus) is accomplishing His perfect will because He died for me, and wants to work His work thru me. So, UN-be-known to me, Jesus is forming me into His special vessel to reach my sphere of witness for His glory. AND that folk will see Jesus reflected back to Him and others of whom I come in contact.

2Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Just like my Son Skip being formed in the belly of my first Wife Jennie, (She died of cancer) I didn't know what he'd look like until he was born. Then there was the growth process and finally, when he reached the age of about 35 would I know my Son.

From spiritual birth (new creature) thru daily Bible study (old things are passing away) the Word of God slowly sanctifies and sets me apart for Jesus' will, and finally prepares me to come home to be with Him.

Thank you for enduring this rather long thread. At my age, it seems to take a lot of words to explain a rather simple theme....May our Lord open all eyes, and give ears to hear what the blessed Holy Spirit is saying thru this His servant.

 

[reba]

 

[Nathan]

This came to mind after reading your post;

Isa 5:13
Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;
their honored men go hungry,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.

For me, studying the Bible is like eating. If I don't eat food, if I only think about it and look at it, then I walk away still hungry.

What people do not understand is our soul has hunger also, not just our physical bodies. We will eat something - but we have the choice to decide what it is we will eat. The fall of mankind made this so - knowledge of good or knowledge of evil. The choice is constantly before us.

You only have two choices of 'spiritual' food. One is the worlds knowledge, the other is God's.

When a person does not study God's word, and simply reads it, they have not satisfied that hunger. So, when the world comes around, with its knowledge, they being hungry, tend to consume it and no good growth takes place. Whereas, a person who reads God's word, then studies it, consumes His knowledge, and good growth takes place.

It's simple really. There are good foods for our physical bodies and bad ones. Both satisfy the hunger, but only one gives good nourishment for growth. The other, bad food, brings on all kinds of sickness and diseases.

I think you would agree Chopper, that studying is not hard. It does not take a trained person to do so. We tend to think that study takes some sort of mental ability to already know something about that which we are studying. When, in fact, the best approach to studying is to not have preconceived idea's.

In reality, the only thing we need to have is desire. Just like with eating food. We will be hungry at some point in the day. When we sit down to eat we have to choose - are we going to eat good stuff, or bad stuff. We don't have to understand how the good food is going to effect us, we just have to know its good and trust that it will meet our physical needs. We also don't have to ponder what all kinds of bad things the bad food will do to our body, we just have to understand it won't be good for us.

 

[Nathan]

I watched a clip on tv a little bit ago about some people feeding homeless people with food found in trash cans. It wasn't a faith based group, that I'm aware of, it was on the travel channel. There were two comments that I found profound, spoken by a homeless gentleman eating.

1. Food is the common denominator of all mankind.

2. Food is best enjoyed with with others.

Comments were made totally apart from a spiritual perspective, but they have so much spiritual truths in them.

 

[Soul man]

Why Do I Study God's Word So Much?

2Timothy 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

There are folk who wonder why I spend several hours each and every morning studying, not just reading, the Word (Scriptures) of God. There was even a member of CF.net that tried to encourage me to stop studying the Scriptures because of how long I have done it, and rely on the Holy Spirit to teach me. His motives were good, I believe, because He had been doing that with good success.

I wonder, in our average Gospel preaching, Bible believing/teaching, churches in each of our geographical area's, study, not just read, you know, "read the Bible in one year" projects? God's Word? If what I'm hearing in my little sphere of witness is true, not many!

So, why do I? I'm a couple of months shy of 77 years old. I was saved in 1974. You might say, "you've studied because you went to Bible College, yep! You pastored 5 churches, Yep! You are are a Christian Psychologist and counseled folk for many years, Yep! You have taught and counseled for several years on CF.net, Yep! "That's why you study God's Word every morning?" .... Well friends, although those facts that I presented are all true, that's not why I study God's Word. You say, "It's not"??? Nope!

The reason is,,,,Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Lets look at what Greek Professor Dr.Kenneth Wuest has to say about the Word of God, specifically "is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This is what I find so interesting about the tail end of this verse. This verse unfolds a great mystery, IMO, that God's Word can, thru serious slow study of Scripture has entrance into my thoughts & intents of my heart, because it's supernaturally alive.

Now, my inner thoughts and even my every day intents are so secret that even I don't really know what I'll think or intend to do in the next hour of my day, isn't that amazing? Now I'm thinking about...Dr. Weust.."The word translated "discerner" further expands and defines the writer’s meaning here. It is kritikos, which comes from krino "to divide or separate," thus "to judge," the usual New Testament meaning being "to sift out and analyze evidence." In the word kritikos, the ideas of discrimination and judgment are blended. Thus, the Word of God is able to penetrate into the furthermost recesses of a person’s spiritual being, sifting out and analyzing the thoughts and intents of the heart"....

The following verses in Romans are what I feel personally, set me up each morning to get the most benefit from my study of God's Word.

Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Ok. lets wrap this up. Sometimes I equate the reason I eat food with the study of God's Word. After I eat a hearty breakfast, I couldn't tell you what brain cells are being vitalized by eating my bacon & eggs. It's the same with studying God's Word.

Since I can't know what God's Word is doing in my heart and mind, I do know, by childlike faith, (it has to be childlike) that the Word of the Logos (Christ Jesus) is accomplishing His perfect will because He died for me, and wants to work His work thru me. So, UN-be-known to me, Jesus is forming me into His special vessel to reach my sphere of witness for His glory. AND that folk will see Jesus reflected back to Him and others of whom I come in contact.

2Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Just like my Son Skip being formed in the belly of my first Wife Jennie, (She died of cancer) I didn't know what he'd look like until he was born. Then there was the growth process and finally, when he reached the age of about 35 would I know my Son.

From spiritual birth (new creature) thru daily Bible study (old things are passing away) the Word of God slowly sanctifies and sets me apart for Jesus' will, and finally prepares me to come home to be with Him.

Thank you for enduring this rather long thread. At my age, it seems to take a lot of words to explain a rather simple theme....May our Lord open all eyes, and give ears to hear what the blessed Holy Spirit is saying thru this His servant.

Good word of encouragement and nice thread.

 

[Chopper]

Thank you all for your "likes" and comments. There are those who don't believe that's its necessary to study the Word of God because it's been infused on our hearts by a work of God, That's true, that it's on the tablet of our heart, but it's my opinion that we need to bring that word to reality by studying the Word as presented in our Bibles.

As we study God's Word, it's alive from our hearts to our spirit/minds and is activated in our conscience to act it out in our lives to the glory and testimony that we are the children of God.

 

[ezrider]

Study....... TO SHOW THYSELF........ Approved.....

Study to show thyself approved. Not the approval of others, and not the approval of God. Study to show thyself approved.

What is the measure of your own approval? When do you consider yourself approved?

 

[th1b.taylor]

Study....... TO SHOW THYSELF........ Approved.....

Study to show thyself approved. Not the approval of others, and not the approval of God. Study to show thyself approved.

What is the measure of your own approval? When do you consider yourself approved?

Some contend the moment you believe and some thde moment you enter into the Gates of Heaven. the Timing matters not as long as you are living a life devoted to God and continue in that until Death.

 

[eddif]

Romans 7:25 KJV
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

There are two major piles to divide scripture into.

The flesh pile:
Pile 1 Decide a lot of scriptures do not give a good report about flesh.
Pile 2 the crucified flesh pile

The mind pile:
Pile #a
Carnal mind.
Pile #b
Mind of Christ
............
There are other divisions / piles
Natural man pile
New man pile

Old covenant pile
New covenant pile

Pre law
Law
Kingdom

I will quit. I will not mention........

eddif

 

[eddif]

Bible study.

Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Without the word in a man, he will not recognize his flesh condition.

Hear those that study the traditions of the elders, rather than the scriptures;

John 8:38 KJV
I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

King David confessed his sins.

The New heart knows it has sin issues. The old stony heart is deceived into thinking it is ok.


The mind is a different issue. The mind can conceive of eternal life through the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

That sharp two edged sword can separate the difference. We can not without the word.

Oh but I have a totally new heart some say. I got we have a new heart, but the new heart can confess sins.

I sin. I await the last trump when total change hits. If we say we have no sin, we lie.

The word tells us how this all is separated.

Redneck sinner with Jesus in the heart (keeping it till the book of life is opened).
eddif