I did not really want to go to Bible study this morning. I have been fighting allergies all week. I did not feel prepared, I had not really gotten that far with the time I had invested in Acts 19. I thought about texting the guys for the 0600 study and sending an email to the pastor I meet with online to bail out of both studies.
Late last night I finally got a title for each of the paragraphs and just quit.
I drug myself out of bed at 0520 and went to the restaurant where we meet.
An hour and a half later I left blown away. It was just about the best discussion we have had. All of the men made great observations. A passage that I thought would not have a lot of discussion, we barely finished. I was encouraged by the depth and clarity of the men’s thoughts.
Thirty minutes later I was online with the pastor in a country six time zones away. Same song second verse. We barely got out of the first paragraph. He is dealing with issues that that paragraph addresses directly. It was a stimulating and challenging conversation.
I walked into the restaurant fatigued with low expectations. I ended the video call 3 and a half hours later excited and overwhelmed with what had transpired in both meetings. What happened? Two things.
First, the Word of God is live giving and life changing. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that it pierces us. Second, each man brought his gifts and thus his unique insight into the Scripture. We built each other up.
Some context. The men in both groups have been equipped to study on their own. They come prepared. They come having wrestled at a significant level with the text. In my experience, experience I sometimes forget when I am wrestling with fatigue and allergies, when you have that combination, men equipped to study, prepared, assembling to share and hash out what they have seen; first the Lord promises He will be there, Matthew 18:20, and the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into truth, John 16:13
If you have not experienced this, do whatever you have to do to get in that type of group. If you need help, let me know, I will figure out a way to help.
I drug myself out of bed at 0520 and went to the restaurant where we meet.
An hour and a half later I left blown away. It was just about the best discussion we have had. All of the men made great observations. A passage that I thought would not have a lot of discussion, we barely finished. I was encouraged by the depth and clarity of the men’s thoughts.
Thirty minutes later I was online with the pastor in a country six time zones away. Same song second verse. We barely got out of the first paragraph. He is dealing with issues that that paragraph addresses directly. It was a stimulating and challenging conversation.
I walked into the restaurant fatigued with low expectations. I ended the video call 3 and a half hours later excited and overwhelmed with what had transpired in both meetings. What happened? Two things.
First, the Word of God is live giving and life changing. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that it pierces us. Second, each man brought his gifts and thus his unique insight into the Scripture. We built each other up.
Some context. The men in both groups have been equipped to study on their own. They come prepared. They come having wrestled at a significant level with the text. In my experience, experience I sometimes forget when I am wrestling with fatigue and allergies, when you have that combination, men equipped to study, prepared, assembling to share and hash out what they have seen; first the Lord promises He will be there, Matthew 18:20, and the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into truth, John 16:13
If you have not experienced this, do whatever you have to do to get in that type of group. If you need help, let me know, I will figure out a way to help.
A terrific illustration that the Holy Spirit who "breathed out" the sacred Word in the first place through holy men "carried along by the Spirit" recorded for us these eternal treasures. How blessed we are to have such riches in our hands!
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