Studying God’s Word

I love to get together with some of the faithful people in our church to study God’s word. We have been going through the Catechism and looking at many of the verses that are tied to each meaning that is given. I love it when we have conversations about God’s word and not just being told information. Anyway, I love that time of fellowship and being able to dig into God’s word. I have had questions asked that I had never thought about before, so it forces me to dig in just a little deeper. Reading, and more importantly, studying God’s word is so fundamental to the Christian walk. When just reading, and not wrestling, we can be persuaded by people around us. We always need to be open to what others say, but if we don’t have a solid foundation in knowledge, we will be attracted to what the crowd says or what sounds good to us. God doesn’t give His word to sound good, but to instruct us and prepare us to serve. There are times that standing on what God’s word says may cause friction and division to those that think differently. There are different circumstances that may determine how we approach God’s word. I believe the Bible studies are a good place to dig deeper and understand the foundation of good theology and explaining meanings of texts and words. Church is a good place to teach that foundation too, but because there may be some people that are searching that may not familiar with Christian “words and concepts”, I believe that it should be a little more user friendly, always being available to answer any questions. I go to a fairly conservative men’s study, which is wonderful, but I believe we should be trying to find what is beneficial to everyone. Every time someone tries to push a denominational explosive topic, it almost always ends in division and people leaving bitter. I’m not saying that these topics should be banned, but that we don’t need to dig into them as deeply in that setting. I have had many wonderful one on one conversations with different men. When addressing the unbeliever, we should be sharing what we believe about God and His word, not what they should believe. The Spirit is to convict their hearts, not us. Holy Spirit, not only do we need to learn more from You, but teach us also how we might share with others. Amen