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When I used to be a pastoral scholar at Liberty University in 1989, I made a dedication to Jesus to learn the Bible ten chapters a day till I had learn it 100 occasions. I started 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, that means I ought to have completed it about 500 days sooner. So, I missed my objective, however as Dr Jerry Falwell used to say at Liberty University, “Shoot for the celebrities, land on the moon, and no person will discover the distinction!”
This one self-discipline has single-handedly modified the trajectory of my life and pastoral ministry. It has carried me via the previous 27 years of elevating a household and church planting as a pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in Colorado Springs known as Vanguard Church. I discuss this self-discipline and dedication within the e book, The Good Pastor, revealed by Leadership Books.
I hope my story of dedication to this self-discipline will encourage a brand new era of Jesus followers to make the Word of God the central piece of their lives. I pray this self-discipline will change into the hub that dictates to them the whole lot else about their lives.
Now for those who knew me personally or as a pastor, you would possibly say, “Kelly, for those who actually spent that a lot time studying and making use of the Word of God to your life over the previous 35 years, it could appear to me you’d be quite a bit godlier than you really are.”
I agree!
One of my favorite authors is Henri Nouwen, whom I can relate with. Once somebody remarked to him, “Henri, it surprises me that you’re not godlier than you might be given how a lot time you’ve got spent with the Lord and His Word in your lifetime.” To which Henri responded, “I do know, are you able to think about how unhealthy of a person I might be had I not spent any time with Jesus and His Word.”
My sentiment precisely!
I take a look at my life and assume to myself, I must be godlier! But I can not think about the place I might be right this moment with out this self-discipline of studying and making use of God’s Word every day.
As I replicate on the previous 35 years, I needed to seize the highest ten classes I’ve discovered from studying the Bible 100 occasions and right here they’re:
- The God of the Old Testament is similar God of the New Testament.
- God is completely Holy all through the Bible.
- God is ideal love all through the Bible and instructions us in Leviticus to like each other.
- The total Bible is about one individual, and His identify is Jesus. He is the ONLY strategy to everlasting life.
- God hates our sin. The disgrace you’re feeling earlier than repentance is at all times from God.
- God at all times and instantly forgives sin after we repent. Shame you’re feeling after repentance isn’t from God.
- God seeks each non-public means doable to convict us of sin for repentance earlier than He brings public destruction in our lives.
- God’s judgement on this life is at all times to steer us to repentance and restoration.
- God’s kindness to us isn’t random; it’s at all times for the sake of both exhibiting His goodness to us or to show us again from our sin.
- All Scripture is worthwhile for us. Don’t unhook your plow from the Old Testament. Nothing in all the Bible is a mistake or inconsistent to who God is or unapplicable to our lives right this moment.
My life and pastoral ministry have been perpetually modified by my time within the Word and the appliance of it in my life every day. However, my self-discipline yesterday in God’s Word doesn’t assure success tomorrow. The Bible is alive and lively such as you and me. This is why you will need to learn the Bible every day. The author of Hebrews says it like this:
“For the phrase of God is alive and lively. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the ideas and attitudes of the center. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid naked earlier than the eyes of him to whom we should give account (Hebrews 4:12).
Every time we learn the Bible it’s alive and lively. It digs into motives, actions, emotions, and ideas and permits us just like the Psalmist to say:
“Search me, God, and know my coronary heart; take a look at me and know my anxious ideas. See if there’s any offensive manner in me, and lead me in the way in which eternal (Psalm 139:23).
James, the brother of Jesus, mentioned the Word of God is a mirror into our souls. When we learn it, we see our true selves if we’re prepared to listen to the prompting of the Spirit within us because it mirrors to us our lives via its lively counsel. However, as James says, studying it isn’t sufficient.
“Do not merely hearken to the phrase, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone 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, goes away and instantly forgets what he seems to be like. But whoever seems to be intently into the proper regulation that provides freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they’ve heard, however doing it—they are going to be blessed in what they do” (James 1:22-25).
Read God’s Word! Apply it every single day and you may be blessed by God. It is a promise from God! It has saved me from self-destruction, and it could prevent too!
