After I was a pastoral pupil at Liberty College in 1989, I made a dedication to Jesus to learn the Bible ten chapters a day till I learn it 100 occasions. I began this dedication on August 16, 1989, and I fulfilled this dedication on February 27, 2024. It took me 34 and a half years to learn the Bible 100 occasions. It ought to have taken me 33 and a 3rd, which means I ought to have completed about 500 days early. So I missed my mark, however as Dr. Jerry Falwell used to say at Liberty College, “Shoot for the celebs, land on the moon, and nobody will discover the distinction!”
This single self-discipline alone modified the trajectory of my life and pastoral ministry. It has carried me by way of the final 27 years of elevating a household and planting church buildings because the pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Colorado Springs referred to as Vanguard Church. I focus on this self-discipline and dedication in The Good Pastor, revealed by Management Books.
I hope that my story of devotion to this self-discipline will encourage a brand new technology of Jesus' followers to make God's Phrase a central a part of their lives. I pray that this self-discipline will develop into the middle that may dictate all the things else about their lives.
When you knew me personally or as a pastor, you may say, “Kelly, when you actually spent that a lot time over the previous 35 years studying and making use of God's Phrase to your life, I believe you'd be much more godly than you actually are.”
I agree!
Considered one of my favourite authors is Henri Nouwen, who I can relate to. Somebody as soon as remarked to him, “Henri, I’m stunned that you’re not extra pious than you might be given the period of time you’ve spent in your life with the Lord and His Phrase.” To this Henri replied, “I do know, you possibly can think about how dangerous I’d be if I didn't spend time with Jesus and His Phrase.”
Precisely my feeling!
I take a look at my life and assume, I ought to be extra godly! However I can't think about the place I’d be in the present day with out this self-discipline of each day studying and making use of God's Phrase.
As I replicate on the previous 35 years, I needed to seize the highest ten classes I discovered from studying the Bible 100 occasions, and right here they’re:
- The God of the Previous Testomony is similar God of the New Testomony.
- God is completely holy all through the Bible.
- God is ideal love all through the Bible and in Leviticus he instructions us to like each other.
- The entire Bible is about one particular person and his identify is Jesus. He’s the ONLY strategy to everlasting life.
- God hates our sin. The disgrace you are feeling earlier than you repent is all the time from God.
- God all the time and instantly forgives sin after we repent. The disgrace you are feeling when repentance isn’t from God.
- God seeks each doable non-public means to convict us of sin to repentance earlier than He brings public destruction into our lives.
- God's judgment on this life is all the time to guide us to repentance and restoration.
- God's kindness to us isn’t unintentional; it’s all the time to both present us his goodness or to show us away from our sin.
- All Scripture is helpful to us. Don’t disconnect your plow from the Previous Testomony. Nothing in the complete Bible is flawed or inconsistent with who God is or not relevant to our lives in the present day.
My life and pastoral ministry have been without end modified by my time within the Phrase and its each day utility in my life. Nonetheless, my self-discipline in God's Phrase yesterday doesn’t assure tomorrow's success. The Bible is alive and lively such as you and me. That’s the reason you will need to learn the Bible day by day. The author of Hebrews places it this manner:
“For the phrase of God resides and lively. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it pierces even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the ideas and attitudes of the center. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. All is laid naked and uncovered earlier than the eyes of him to whom we should give an account (Hebrews 4:12).
Each time we learn the Bible, it’s alive and lively. It offers with motives, actions, emotions, and ideas, and permits us, because the psalmist, to say:
“Search me, O God, and know my coronary heart, strive me and know my anxious ideas. See if there may be any offending manner in me, and lead me in the best way eternal (Psalm 139:23).
James, the brother of Jesus, mentioned that the Phrase of God is a mirror to our souls. After we learn it, we see our true selves, if we’re prepared to listen to the promptings of the Spirit inside us, as He mirrors our lives to us by way of His lively counsels. Nonetheless, as James says, studying it’s not sufficient.
“Don't simply take heed to the phrase and deceive your self. Do what it says. Anybody who listens to the phrase however doesn't do what it says is like somebody who seems to be at his face in a mirror and after himself walks away and instantly he forgets what he seems to be like. However whoever seems to be intently on the good regulation that offers freedom and continues in it – he doesn’t neglect what he heard, however does it – he will likely be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25 ).
Learn God's Phrase! Apply it day by day and you can be blessed by God. It’s a promise from God! It saved me from self-destruction and it will probably prevent too!
