Wednesday, October 29, 2014

How We Should Study Our Bible (2)



(Radio, c.1947)
 Read Psalm 119:9-16.

When shall we study our Bible.

If we expect the truths of the Bible to open up to us we must open it's pages regularly.  Let us not make this a casual reading but a period of meditative study.

Dr. Howard A. Kelly, a great surgeon, a teacher in Johns Hopkins University, and a diligent student of the Bible, says...
Let my DAILY Bible then be my rock and my citadel, my high tower overlooking the city of Zion where I dwell secure from all the wilds of the enemy, the sword of my spirit for defensive and offensive warfare on the arch-enemy of our souls, an armory full of weapons, not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God to the casting down of strongholds.

Our attitude in Bible Study.
To understand thoroughly any book we should know the mind of the author.  The Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible.  Thus we must have His mind.  Thus we must come to the Bible...
     1.  Prayerfully.  "The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sun dial by moon light."  In opening the Bible we ought to pray from the 119th Psalm: "Open thou my eyes that I may behold wonderous things out of Thy law."  Nothing else will open the Bible to us as prayer will.
     2.  Obediently.  "Sin soon separates from the Bible those whom the Bible does not separate from sin."  Much of our inability to understand the Bible is due to the fact that our lives are out of accord with its teachings.  "If any man willeth to do his will he shall know of the teaching whether it is of God or whether I speak for myself." (John 7:17).
     3.  Persistently.  It takes hard work to master God's Book.  "God's thoughts are never revealed to listless readers but only to eager searchers."  The Bible is like a mine and its jewels are not to be picked on the roadside.

The Bible: it is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character.

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