Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
I will start off with I am not in any way a theologian. I have not attended bible college. I have no special training. I am merely someone who reads the Word of God and am not any more intelligent than the rest of the population. Yet, people call me or take me aside and ask me about God’s word as if I have special training that they can rely on. I do not. The ONLY thing that sets me apart is that I do read His Word. The excuse that most will offer, by far, is that they do not understand the bible. The Christian’s faith is left up to someone else to tell them what to believe.
I read in a John Macarthur sermon the following story about bible scholar Donald G. Barnhouse who was traveling by air and reading the book of Romans. Donald Barnhouse wrote volumes on the book of Romans. Sitting next to him was a seminary student who was reading the Time magazine and after looking at Dr. Barnhouse several times, he asked him “Sir, I don’t want to interrupt you but aren’t you Dr. Donald Barnhouse?” Dr. Barnhouse replied yes and the student then said “Dr. Barnhouse, you’re such a fabulous teacher of the Scripture. I wish that I could know the Bible like you do.” Dr. Barnhouse’s answer just about made me fall off my chair when I read it as it was so appropriate. He responded “Well, you could start by putting down Time magazine and reading the Bible.”
One of my complaints about churches I have attended is that they are not equipping the saints and the saints are left drinking milk instead of graduating to meat. I have felt unfed and unsatisfied in the teachings that I receive. I don’t know whose fault it is, the leaders or the congregants. For the most part, I don’t see congregants spending time studying the Word of God. They are where they are not because the pastors won’t teach but because they won’t take the time to spend reading His word. You can’t teach a 7th grader calculus until that child has graduated in his or her math abilities and done the necessary work and gained the necessary knowledge to be able to grasp the concepts calculus. Using that same reasoning, a Christian cannot graduate to meat until he has mastered the milk of the Word of God. And that’s never going to happen until the Christian takes an active and aggressive role. Bottle feeding and spoon feeding are for infants and as I look around me, there are too many Christians that are still being bottle fed and spoon fed. They go to church, are fed the Word of God and that is it until next week. This is the very definition of an immature Christian, one that has no desire to grow but instead desires to be fed with a spoon.
The fact of the matter is that God has commanded Christians to train themselves in Godly matters.
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1Ti 4:7-8 ESV)
Today, for most, it seems that Christians want their pastors to spoon feed them. The excuse is that they just don’t understand the bible. Well, you never will until you take the time and effort. If you don’t feed your mind with the Word of God but instead feed your mind with a weekly sermon, then you will always be infants and toddlers in Christ needing someone else to put the spoon to your mouth or hold your bottle for you.
Those of us that do spend time in the Word are answering questions and explaining the Word to our fellow brothers and sisters who are simply too lazy to study His Word. Like I said, I am not any smarter nor do I have any special training except for that which the Holy Spirit has taken me. The Holy Spirit did not infuse a bunch of knowledge in me as I slept. I read the Bible, I question, I do word studies, and I read studies and sermons of others. With this effort, God has opened my eyes in such a way that could not be opened if I simply showed up at church once a week.
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5 comments
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Margaret
December 9, 2009 at 9:34 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Tishrei,
Amen and amen again….. What puzzles me is that everyone wants to be sure and get to heaven to live in God’s glory forever and ever….. But, they don’t want to take the time to grow in the LORD here and now….. It’s like they don’t want to get acquainted of the Owner of the heavenly places….. If we want to spend time in heaven and be with God forever, we should at least try to get to know Who we will be with in eternity.
Jesus tells us a number of times that we must abide in Him, so that He will abide in us….. Studying God’s word is a part of that abiding.
Margaret
Tishrei
December 10, 2009 at 11:50 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hi Margaret,
I guess that’s the sign of our time — we want everything the easy way and our way in all aspects of our lives. And how people treat God and His word is no different I guess. It’s really sad. I wasn’t trying to pick on people but that’s just what I see around me. And I’m talking about Christians which makes it doubly sad and tragic.
pttyann
December 10, 2009 at 1:30 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Amen Sister amen,we must study God’s word for ourselves for many false prophets and teachers are behind the pulpit misleading many and they don’t have a clue!!! Staying in God’s word gives the Holy Spirit much to work with especially doing trying times like we’re living in now,we need to stop running around looking for teachers and preachers and let God’s word do it’s work and it certainly will if we stay in it!!!! Really good post Tishrei I truly enjoyed the read,have a wonderful evening.
Tony
January 10, 2010 at 11:06 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Being in a similar position to you, I understand your view that people need to learn to feed themselves.
However, I have witnessed pastors and leaders of a church use this as an excuse for not teaching the congregation. It needs to be shown that the bible is interrelated and connects together, and that threads tie it together and to history; if a church culture is mired in the milk with no hope with getting any meat, they’ll never progress as bible smart people tend to leave churches that are made of dross, motivation and shun good doctrine.
People that know the word seem to be anomalies that they could never be like, and that’s why I like your article. There is a point though where the congregation needs to be led to and through the word, to make sense of it, to be shown how much richer it is than what they’ve been previously presented. From that point, their diligence comes into place, and where I believe your article picks up from.
Tishrei
January 11, 2010 at 9:50 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hi, I guess it’s sort of a catch 22 type of situation. I can share my personal experience. When I really started to grow is when I took the bulls by the horn, so to speak, and study on my own. In a sense, the church is not giving the people more than they want and by the same token, the people are not demanding their church leaders give them more than what they’re getting.
I think in the end, when we stand before God as Christians, we’re not going to be able to use as an excuse “well, my pastor didn’t teach me.” That would be an excuse if we did not have His written word available to us.
The bible really is not that difficult to understand. I’ve known people with less than a high school education go through the bible using the KJV no less and have an incredible understanding of His word. I can say that most of what I know is not through my church or attending bible studies but my own studies in His word.
I do understand what you’re saying. I think everybody has dropped the ball, the church leaders and the individual Christian.
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