Free to Serve

Bible Intake

Last Wednesday, as part of Equipping Matters at MVBC, Andrew Armstrong spoke to the importance of hearing, reading, studying, and meditating upon God's Word. What an encouragement!

Some simple pieces of application worth our consideration:

1) When it comes to hearing God's Word preached: get a good night sleep on Saturday; try taking notes during the sermon; read the text in advance; pray for focus.

2) When it comes to reading God's Word: talk to others about what you read in your personal devotional time; try reading less and give yourself time to dig deeper; keep track of the passages you've read so you can be reminded what Scripture you have digested.

3) When it comes to studying God's Word: ask basic questions about every passage (What is the context? What do I observe? what does this mean? How should I apply this?); use different versions; invest in a commentary set like the Bible Speaks Today series.

4) When it comes to meditating on God's Word: take an appropriate passage and rephrase it in your own words; ask how it applies to some situation you are enduring; pray through the passage; fight so that you do more than understand the passage, delight in it!

Changing

Most of us want to change. We recognize that there are areas of our lives that need reformation. Paul told the Thessalonians that they were walking in such a way as to please God. Then he urged them to do this more and more. There is always room for growth.

Much of our lives are given over to growing--and that means changing. God designed us to do this together, in a church. In their book, How People Change, Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp point out that the biblical way to grow is in community, as we spend time with other people. Sounds easy . . . 

Yet this is not simple. Being involved with people is time-consuming, messy, and complicated. From our point of view it is inefficient, but from God's point of view it is the best way to encourage growth in grace. Our value system collides with God's, but this means for bringing about change in us is best. That means we will have to make time for these kinds of friendships to emerge and grow. We will have to be realistic, too. Close relationships make it more likely that you will sin against someone or that someone will sin against you. There will need to be times of confession and forgiveness. There will be times when you will need to serve someone, even though you feel you lack the resources. There will also be times when you will be served! That may not sound like a challenge, but if you are proud, it is the last thing you want!