Week 4 - Read and Study God’s Word

We were given many good Bible study tools this week. One of our members said this week really blessed her.

One of my thoughts was that it would be easy for us to say, “Good, now I know what are some good tools and some time I’ll come back to these pages and choose some of these tools to check out.” It gave me an idea for an object lesson.

Chelsea came up to the front and I said we would make her a world-class fisher-woman. I gave her the tools of the trade: a fishing pole, extra line, bobbers, hooks, a tackle box, a paddle to get out into the lake, and a copy of the Minnesota fishing regulations. With all of these tools Chelsea could become a great fisher-woman. But wait! Chelsea just decided to go back to her seat and put all these great new tools on the floor! She wasn’t going to use them at all!

I hope everyone got the point that it’s not enough to have good tools, or know where to find them. We won’t find the treasures in the word of God if we leave all the Bible study tools on the shelf.

I used Catherine’s devotional method of responding to a Biblical passage this week. I am reading through Jeremiah and I thought it might be hard to find some application there for me. However, using Catherine’s method I have to say I was surprised at what I found. I was reading Jeremiah 14-17 one day and came across Jer. 17:7, 8. I wrote these verses down as my significant observation. Then I looked up some cross references and came to the conclusion that the best place for a tree to grow is by a river. It keeps the tree alive, growing and fruitful. So the best place for a person to dwell is near God, our river of living water. The tree is an object lesson to us that if we want to be healthy, vibrant, nourished and useful we will stay near God and draw our life from him.

The small group I sat with this week discussed the testimony of George Mueller given on page 144. After reading that, I guess none of us can really say we don’t have time to spend with God. None of us are nearly as busy as he was, and quiet time in the word was his top priority. What an eye-opener for us!