Kiss pie--a family dessert. Made by Chris.
When I was a baby my mom would feed me cottage cheese and I
would spit it out into her face!
Cottage cheese is rich in calcium and protein. She knew that I needed these nutrients in my diet. But for some reason, maybe it was the
texture or taste, I didn’t like cottage cheese.
Now as an adult I don’t like the thought of taking a bite of
cottage cheese, but when I do I like it, and enjoy eating it, especially if it is very fresh and 4% fat.
Sometimes the word of God is like that for us. We don’t like the thought of sitting
down and reading the Bible, but when we do, we will find wonderful nourishment
for our souls.
When I first started studying the Bible we had a wonderful
Sunday school teacher in Spokane, WA.
His name was Bruce Gore-- see here. He would come up with amazing nuggets every Sunday. I asked him if the Holy Spirit taught
him the things he came up with. He said, no, that he had to observe the Word
like he was mining gold. He would
dig out the gems slowly, as if he was using a spoon—a little at a time. I was
disappointed because I thought that while studying the Bible the Holy Spirit would do all the work for me. After all, the Bible says in Jeremiah 31: 33 "But this is
the covenant which I
will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the
LORD, "I will put My law within them
and on their heart I
will write it; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people.
Then in the New Testament it says in Hebrews
10:16 "THIS IS
THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I
WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON
THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I
WILL WRITE THEM,"
I thought that would be cool! God would open my mind and heart and pour all the knowledge of the Bible into me.
Along this line, when I was a teen, I read a story in my older brother’s “Boys Life” magazine about a boy who never had to study. In the story the boy invented a machine that would turn books into candy bars. If he needed to know the information in a book for a test, he would put the book into the machine, and it would become a candy bar. He would eat the candy bar and know everything that was in the book. I was hoping the Bible would work that way. But no, God expects us to work at knowing His Word and therefore growing in our knowledge of Him.
Along this line, when I was a teen, I read a story in my older brother’s “Boys Life” magazine about a boy who never had to study. In the story the boy invented a machine that would turn books into candy bars. If he needed to know the information in a book for a test, he would put the book into the machine, and it would become a candy bar. He would eat the candy bar and know everything that was in the book. I was hoping the Bible would work that way. But no, God expects us to work at knowing His Word and therefore growing in our knowledge of Him.
The best way for me to study the Bible is to join a study
group like Bible Study Fellowship, Community Bible Study, or Precepts Bible
study. Others studying along with
me encourages me. They will come
up with insights that I hadn’t thought of. I am enriched each week. Here is a pep talk on reading the Bible from Julia Stager. Click here to see it on Randy Alcorn's website.
What are your suggestions for learning God’s Word and for
growing in your knowledge of Him?
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