Why Should I Study The Bible
In the pages of Scripture, we are encouraged to study the Bible.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth .
This is a good reason why you should study, but I will make it even more practical. You should study because you want to know God more. You want to live in a way that pleases him. You want to understand more of his plan of salvation and how you fit into it. You want to truly walk with him. In other words, you study the Bible because that is the purpose of the Bible. If you want to become the person God wants you to become, then studying the Bible will be an essential part of your life. It cannot happen any other way.
As I said at the beginning, answering the question what the purpose of the Bible is can take you in many different directions. I hope you were enlightened by the way I took, and more importantly that you were encouraged to open your Bible and begin to read and study more. There is so much to learn about God and yourself and you can find it all written for you within the pages of Scripture. Now go read and discover what God wants to reveal to you today.
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The Bible Answers Simply That Life Was Createdby God
Acts 17:24,25,28 – God made the world and everything in it.Life came from the living God.
Genesis 1:11,12,21-28 – The different kinds of life existbecause God created them with the power to reproduce after theirown kind .
Genesis 1:26,27 – Man is different from the animals because wedid not evolve from animals. We were made with uniquecharacteristics that God possesses.
The Bible agrees with what we see around us. Surely itdeserves your serious study.
Loving Your Spouse Through The Seasons Of Marriage
Debra Fileta has identified the four seasons of marriage that correspond with our natural seasons spring , summer , fall , and winter . In this interview, she will help couples better understand the four seasons of healthy relationships, what to expect during each one, and how to carefully navigate them for a stronger marriage.
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How Do You Know If You’re Reading Scripture The Right Way
Can you read Scripture the wrong way? Yes, actually you can so it begs us to affirm how to read the Bible the right way. If you read Psalm 23 every night before bed because you heard its an important verse but it doesnt change your heart for Godthen youre reading it wrong.
If youre reading the Bible out of duty instead of devotion, youre reading the Bible wrong.
If youre reading the Bible merely for the facts instead of strengthening your faith, youre reading the Bible wrong.
If youre reading the Bible merely to be right, then youre reading the Bible wrong.
If youre reading the Bible to cherry-pick verses instead of letting the Bible change you, youre reading the Bible wrong.
These arent the only signs youre reading the Bible wrong but its a good start. Reading the Bible is an act of worship. Those tattered and torn pages are meant to transform your heart and help you see the world through the eyes of Christ. Before opening your Bible, ask God to reveal His heart to you, ask Him for a fresh Word. Then read with a hungry and humble heart ready to make bold prayer requests through Christ!
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Learn The Truth Of The Bible For Yourself
We often listen to sermons or others teachings, so why study the Bible? These people have done the work for you, right? Wrong! You need to learn and verify the truth for yourself!
The importance of Bible study is clear: Teach us for ourselves what the truth is.
They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11b
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Love In Every Season: Understanding The Four Stages Of A Healthy Relationship
Every relationship goes through four life-changing seasons: Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter. Each season plays an important role in taking your relationship to the next level. And depending on how you navigate each season, your relationship will either flourish and grow, or it will slowly die. Whether youre single, dating, engaged or married, join licensed professional counselor and relationship expert, Debra Fileta as she takes you on an eye-opening psychological and spiritual journey through the four seasons that she has observed in every healthy relationship.
Bible Study Protects Us From Twisting The Truth
Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
The Word of God is challenging, and because sin is a power at work against man, its inevitable that people will twist the words of God for their own purposes. This sort of manipulation will be confusing and distracting to those who do not regularly seek a fuller grasp of Gods Word through study.
Study of the Bible is important for the health of a believer. Someone who reads daily but never spends times in study is like a person who eats regular, nourishing meals but never bothers to discover why the meals are nourishing: You gain some benefit, but cant appreciate the components of the meal, nor can you fully apply the concepts of nourishment to other facets of life.
For example, when reading through a verse or book of the Bible, we will get the benefit of its implications on our current experience, but we may miss the meaning of the context in which it was written. This expanded view of the insight of Scripture is only available through study.
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What Happens When This Life Is Over
The Bible would not be complete if it only dealt with what happens in this life, and thankfully it goes beyond that. The Bible doesnt just teach us about living life on earth now it prepares us for what happens when this life is over and the eternal life we will live after we die. The Bible reveals our mortality and our immortality both at the same time. What I mean is that every person will have an eternal existence after we die. First it is clear that we will all die and then we will all face judgment.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment .
However, after this judgment we will all exist forever. The question is where will you exist forever? Some will be with God forever in heaven, and some will be eternally separated from God in a place called hell or the lake of fire. I am not saying this to scare you, I am saying this because this is what the Bible reveals. We are all eternal beings, it is just a matter of where you will spend your eternity. As my former pastor used to say, 10,000 years from now where will you be?
The Bible is clear about life after death, but that is also what makes Gods plan of salvation so beautiful and why the Bible is so important.
If We Are Ignorant The Word Of God Instructs Us
David says, Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than my enemies. I have more understanding than all my teachers for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts .
Again he says, The entrance of Thy words giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple .
Some time ago, out on the plains of Minnesota, I found a humble young man, who worked on a farm, who seemed to me to be wonderfully wise. I asked him his secret, and he told me that it was constant study of the Word of God and prayer. If he had ten minutes to spare at noon-hour, he did not waste it in foolish talk, or in reading stories or newspapers, but he dug into his Bible.
People told him that he would get narrow if he did not read other books, but he found that they were the ones who got narrow, and when they became confused by the assumptions of evolution, spiritualism, the new psychology, Dowieism, and the like, he, although not educated in the schools, had no difficulty in solving all their problems through his knowledge of the Bible. Like David, he found himself wiser than his enemies, his teachers, and the elders, through Gods Word.
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Study The Bible To Gain Wisdom Guidance And Direction
The Bible gives us guidance and direction instructions on how to live a spiritual life. This helps us be more obedient and know the difference between right and wrong. Study your Bible to see what God has in store for your life!
The Bible also gives us a great deal of wisdom, and we need to be wise if we are to survive this world and make it into the next. Understanding your religion, the Law the Father left us in the Old Testament, and the amazing enduring words of the New Testament that the prophets left us will aid you greatly in life.
When you understand your freedom, the reason you are alive in Christ today, you will realize the mercy of God and the judgment you have escaped through the wonderful grace of God and Jesus Christ.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Jesus answered, The Scriptures say: No one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken. Matthew 4:4
The Goal Of Studying Scripture Is To See The Savior
All lasting growth in the Christian life happens as a result of beholding Gods glory in the face of Jesus: we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another . Therefore, as we pursue spiritual growth, we do it by seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ .
We study the Bible to see Jesus more clearly. And as we behold Gods glory in Christ, we become like him. But this takes workwe labor to study the Bible to remove all our wrong conceptions of Christ. We study because we are discontent with a foggy vision of him.
The goal of studying Scripture is to see the Savior and become transformed by that satisfying sight of him.
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Exciting Bible Verses About Heaven Kjv
Acts 27:43But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast first , and get to land:
Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to purpose.
Acts 13:36Now when David had served Godâs purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
1 Thessalonians 4:7For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
The Bible Tells How You Canbecome A Member Of God’s Family
Most people would think it a great honor to be a child of someimportant person in history. Consider then how great a blessingit would be if you were a child of God Himself.
The Church Is God’s Family.
1 Timothy 3:15 – The house of God is the church.
1 John 3:1,2 – God is willing to make us His children. Thisindicates His love for us.
Anyone Can Be a Member of This Family.
Matthew 12:47-50 – Whosoever does the will of the Father isJesus’ brother, sister, etc.
1 Peter 1:22,23 – We are born again byobeying the truth, the word of God.
Galatians 3:26,27 – To become children of God we must believein Jesus enough to obey in baptism .
How wonderful to be a child of the King of the Universe!Surely we ought to study the Bible to understand how to receivethis great blessing.
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Do You Want To Know Jesus Better Read The Bible
The Bible, under the Illumination of the Holy Spirit, reveals Him to us. It is there that we see Him a tender babe, born in a manger, in a stable among the cattle, and hunted for His life by cruel Herod.
It is there that we find Him humbly toiling at the carpenters bench, fasting and praying, and tempted by the devil in all points like as we are, doing good, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of forgiving love, having compassion on the poor and sorrowful and sinful, preaching the Gospel, warning men of the judgment to come, declaring both the love and the wrath, the goodness and the severity of God, and at last laying down His life a sacrifice for our sins.
It is there that we see the open grave, the risen Saviour, the ascending, glorified Lord, into whose hands is given all power in heaven and earth to be used in behalf of His holy ones on earth to be used for their defense, their guidance, their spiritual education, their deliverance, their support, their warfare, their uttermost salvation, and their final triumph over all the power of the enemy, over all earth and hell. Read the Bible to see and know Jesus.
What Is The Importance Of The Latter Rain In The Context Of The Great Controversy Joel : 2832 Compare Malachi : 3
note: The latter rain, falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain and prepares it for the sickle. The Lord employs these operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit. As the dew and the rain are given first to cause the seed to germinate, and then to ripen the harvest, so the Holy Spirit is given to carry forward, from one stage to another, the process of spiritual growth. The ripening of the grain represents the completion of the work of Gods grace in the soul. By the power of the Holy Spirit the moral image of God is to be perfected in the character. We are to be wholly transformed into the likeness of Christ.
The latter rain, ripening earths harvest, represents the spiritual grace that prepares the church for the coming of the Son of man. Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 506.
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Tactics 10th Anniversary Edition: A Game Plan For Discussing Your Christian Convictions
In a world increasingly indifferent to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of authority. In Tactics, 10th Anniversary Edition, Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to artfully regain control of conversations, keeping them moving forward in constructive ways through thoughtful diplomacy. Youll learn how to stop challengers in their tracks and how to turn the tables on questions or provocative statements. Most important, youll learn how to get people thinking about Jesus.
Why Should We Read And Study The Bible
Its worth our time and energy to read and study the Bible regularly. Things come up in life that keep us busy and distracted from the most important things. Lets look at some of the precious benefits of dwelling on Gods Word. It will help us understand and remind us why were studying the Bible.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Psalm 139:17
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Scott Mcvey Associate Pastor Northside Baptist Church Brunswick
What is a one hundred dollar bill worth? You would probably say, One hundred dollars. In one sense you would be right and in one sense wrong.
The paper does not have an Intrinsic value of one hundred dollars. Since 1933, when America went off the gold standard, there is not even one hundred dollars worth of gold to back it up. A one hundred dollar bill is only worth one hundred dollars because our U.S. Treasury has placed that value on it.
According to the Mayo clinic, the chemicals in the human body are valued at approximately $4.50. Fortunately, in Gods eyes, a person is worth more than the sum of the value of the elements in his/her body. You are valuable because God, for some reason, values you. Gods valuation of you began even before your conception.
How do you know you are valuable in Gods eyes? Your intrinsic value is revealed by three truths.
Remember, what was true of Jeremiah is true for you and for everyone.
How Can We Know For Sure What The Bibles Ancient Culture Was Like
As a result of the recovery of over a million texts from the ancient world and a century of persistent research by scholars, we are now in a position to add significant nuances to our understanding of the life and thought of those who lived in Israel in Bible times. The end result is a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of the text.
Through understanding the background, we can better understand why people spoke and acted the ways they did and can better identify with them. Besides helping us understand the world in which people in the Bible lived, study of ancient texts from the cultures in the Biblical world can provide information that we really need to understand the Biblical material.
If, as readers, we are isolated from the cultural background of the Bible, we might be inclined to think that the ideas in the Biblical text have no anchors in time and culture.
How do we understand the Biblea book that billions have turned to over multiple centuries and many culturesas literature in its ancient context?
Readers today approach very differently such different sorts of writings as satire, news reports, or a declaration of war. Knowing a works intent is an important key for understanding it. It should therefore be no surprise that the inspired authors of the Bible adapted genres that already existed in the larger culture otherwise the first audiences would not have known the intent of these works.
Book Cover: Courtesy of the publisher
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