©2014 Pinedale Christian Church

Nehemiah 8:2-3

“… Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud…”

Romans 10:17

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

God is the Great Harvester – plowing fields, sowing seed, and harvesting men and women into His kingdom. In His sovereign timing, He plows our hearts with situations and circumstances in life that wake us up and get our eyes off of ourselves. When He has our attention, He will usually use someone to “SPEAK” His Truth into our lives. “Turn from sin, turn to God, trust the finished work of Christ, die to self, and identify with Christ in baptism…” Hearing the truth of God is what awakens FAITH in us. Reread the Scripture above. Where does “FAITH” come from?

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Now, reconsider one of the key verses of this study — Colossians 2:6-7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Combine the truths in these two Scriptures and answer the following question: HOW do you continue to GROW or DEEPEN your faith in Christ?

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WEEK 5 DAY 29

Hear the WordRESULTS OF HEARING GOD’S WORDREAD NEHEMIAH 8:2-3, ROMANS 10:17

©2014 Pinedale Christian Church

1 Peter 2:2-3 (New International Version)“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

1 Peter 2:2-3 (New King James Version)“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

Do you remember your first meal? I’ll bet not! Have you gained any weight since you were a baby? I’ll bet so! I bet if we interviewed your mother, she’d say you consumed a LOT of milk as a baby! That stuff was perfect for helping you grow though – predigested nutrients delivered at body temperature in a loving and caring fashion. Just the scene of a baby at their mother’s breast is soothing and comforting! Nothing will grow a child faster than their mother’s milk… it’s just the perfect food for those starting out in life.

Hearing the Word of God is pure spiritual milk. It is food given in its simplest form delivered by someone else. It is ALL about your relationship with Christ, and it is the stuff our newborn souls feed on. And though you may not remember much about your first birthday, your spiritual birthday is probably marked by strong memories – it is, after all, a waking up from a near death sleep! Once awoken, your soul should be hungry – that’s the first sign you’re alive in Christ. Hear the Word of God preached. Listen to CD’s, tapes, Christian radio (all predigested spiritual food).

Think about the concepts in 1 Peter 2:2-3. When you first came to Christ, what aspect(s) of His goodness do you remember?

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Why do you think “hearing” the Word of God is integral to spiritual growth?

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WEEK 5 DAY 30

Hear the WordFIRST MEALS…

READ 1 PETER 2:2-3

©2014 Pinedale Christian Church

Hebrews 5:12-14

“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Perhaps one of the most disturbing images I’ve ever encountered on my job happened with a client one afternoon. While walking around a yard, my client’s son came up and said “Mommy, I’m hungry, milk please.” Not wanting to get in the way of a hungry 4 year old, I insisted she feed the boy so we could work without interruption. I told her I’d start measuring things out – I had plenty to do. I stretched a tape measure, set up a drawing board, and walked past the large livingroom window. As I walked by the window, I caught a glimpse of a 4 year old child in his mother’s arms breast feeding! Yikes! I wanted to run out and buy the woman a gallon of milk and a sippy cup!

If all of our spiritual input is from others, and the only thing we do is occasionally hear the Word of God, we will stagnate in our relationship with Christ. 1 Peter 2:2-3 says to crave milk in order to grow. But when we’ve reached a certain point, we need “solid” food. That’s when we graduate from simply “hearing” the Word of God taught, to actually handling it ourselves. The next step is to read it on our own. At first, this can be as messy as a 4 year old boy in the pantry, but that’s alright! At some point we need to learn how to feed ourselves! In fact, you can generally track the maturity of a human by their food choices and preparation styles… milk, soft/baby food, cereals, veggies, chicken nuggets (a basic staple for kids – modern day manna), microwave meals — to the highly evolved stages of shopping, growing, hunting or fishing for one’s meal, cleaning, cooking and prepping that meal, and then serving up the masterpiece. These later stages require maturity but are some of the most satisfying activities of every day physical life.

List the benefits of being constantly in the Word of God.

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Write a prayer of commitment to Christ regarding His Word – consider how He wants you to grow, just like any (normal) parent would want their child to mature.

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WEEK 5 DAY 31

Read the WordNEXT MEALS…

READ HEBREWS 5:12-14

Acts 8:26-40Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

An educated Ethiopian Jew was reading the Scriptures alone in the desert at a rest stop on the highway in Gaza. God seized the opportunity by supernaturally moving Philip to the man’s chariot in a “divine appointment.” In this passage we see the benefit of studying the Scriptures “inductively,” which is to say simply asking questions of the text, and then searching the rest of Scripture for the answer. The two most basic questions of Inductive Bible Study are:

1. What does the passage say? (The result is a careful consideration of what is written, how the parts of speech relate, how the concepts fit together in the passage, and how it fits into the context of what came before and after it.)

2. What does it mean? (Any author generally writes down a concept with a single meaning behind it – the real skill behind studying the Scriptures is to understand the meaning behind the passage. A verse of Scripture CANNOT mean something different out of context and still be true. Context (grammatical, situational, historical) is KING in understanding the meaning of any passage of Scripture).

Take the passage below and practice this Inductive Bible Study method using the above two questions: Colossians 1:28-29 “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

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WEEK 5 DAY 32

Study the WordAN ETHIOPIAN’S QUESTION –

“DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE READING?”

©2013 Pinedale Christian Church

©2014 Pinedale Christian Church

2 Timothy 2:15 (King James Version)“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

2 Timothy 2:15 (New International Version)“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

All people “study” something. To study something is, in effect, to engage in relationship, to go beyond the surface aspects of something, and dive deep into its mysteries. I “study” fly fishing. If you came to my house, you would find magazines lying here and there with covers showing people holding fish or casting whippy rods on beautiful bodies of water. There is a whole shelf of books on fly fishing in my library. I study it, I think about it, I visualize it, I practice it, I teach it, and I “DO” it on a regular basis.

Christ made it clear in John 15:7, that to have the “WORD” remain in “YOU” is a prerequisite for bearing fruit. To tie the two examples together, to study Scripture is to engage in relationship with Christ! To become a student of the Word of God IS to engage in deep relationship with Christ. To merely listen to the Word or to just casually read it would be like glancing at a treasure map and then setting it aside to pursue other things.

What is Paul asking Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:15?

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What is the difference between correctly and incorrectly handling the Word of Truth? _____________________________________________

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Write out a prayer asking God to make “YOU” a great student of His Word!

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WEEK 5 DAY 33

Study the WordPAUL’S CHALLENGE TO TIMOTHY

READ 2 TIMOTHY 2:15

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John 5:39-40

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

In John 5:39-40 we find Jesus clearly pointing out the hypocrisy of religious elite. They were leaders who knew the Word of God backwards and forwards yet had TOTALLY missed the PURPOSE for which the Word of God was given. Reread Jesus’ statement above and then answer this question: What is the purpose of the Scriptures?

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God’s final goal for your brain is NOT to fill it with biblical facts so that you could win the “BIBLE” category on Jeopardy!!! From yesterday’s devotional, we recognize that we ARE to diligently study the Scriptures. Jesus makes it clear though, that we are to study Scripture in order TO DEEPEN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM! Study the following passage and write a few thoughts that come to mind.

Matthew 7:24-27

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

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WEEK 5 DAY 34

Study the WordREAD JOHN 5:39-40, MATTHEW 7:24-27

©2013 Pinedale Christian Church

For those of you who like charts and maps, today is your day! Below is a “flyover” vision of the Bible at 36,000 feet. Notice the timeline above Abraham’s name begins at 2000 B.C., and the New Testament timeline ends in less than 100 years after Christ’s birth (around 90 A.D.). For those of you who are NOT chart folks, there’s more below.

WEEK 5 DAY 35

Study the WordOVERVIEW OF SCRIPTURE

If someone asked you what is the theme of the Bible, how would you answer? _______________________________________________

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With over 20 human authors and 66 “books” written in the span of 1900 years of history, one might think that there wouldn’t be a central theme, but rather a collection of 66 themes from each of the individual books. But we know from what Scripture says about itself, that God directed His concepts, words, and ideas through each of the human authors, and to that end we find surprisingly that like a great novel, THE Author (God) lays out a specific premise and context early in the book, and then creatively takes His readers along a story line to build upon that theme; and finally, He brings the theme to an ultimate conclusion. Scripture is incredibly UNIFIED and stands on its own without contradictions (although it has its share of “paradoxes,” which make for some interesting study).

However, it is with GREAT humility that I try to help you grasp the theme of the Bible (especially to assume that it can be captured in just a few words – God’s plan and revelation is just TOO grand for a few words). Rather, I’d like to give just a few words to use as “hooks” to help you hang the concepts of Scripture on, and to see the BIG PICTURE so that the “little pieces” make sense in the flow of “HIStory.” Before I try to pen the theme, meditate for just a minute on what Paul says about the Bible’s ONE Author.

For he [ God ] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:13-20).

The theme of Scripture starts and ends with God and His glorification (the revelation and worship of His attributes, character and Personhood). It is God’s work in history for HIS own ends! God’s purpose behind Scripture is to reveal His loving (reconciling) nature toward a creation (mankind) that chose to rebel AGAINST its own Creator. Adam & Eve (made in God’s image), lost the full benefit of relationship with God by their own decision to disobey the Word of God. Their 7-fold “death” or separation (between themselves and God, spouse, society, self, work, environment and physical life) and subsequent human history recorded in the Old Testament, all point to a dire need within the human race. As sin increased, God scattered mankind through language to abate the spread of Adam’s sin. He chose one man (Abraham) to work through to develop a “time and space” historic human context so that eventually ALL languages, cultures and people could eventually see His character. All of God’s dealings with “Abraham’s seed” (the Jewish people – Old Testament), was for the purpose of providing a “context” for ALL nations and cultures to understand the purpose and work of Jesus (the second Person of the Godhead). That work was to break Adam’s “curse” of separations, which is to say that Christ “reconcile[d] to Himself all things” by bearing humankind’s entire curse on Himself. Those who have chosen to follow God through Christ are brought BACK (reconciled) to relationship with God and the 6 other separations of Adam, and are given a permanent seal of the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit who lives inside every believer. Christ’s work on the cross, and subsequent resurrection, all satisfy the justice of a holy and perfect God. At the end of human history, ALL cultures and nations are represented and gathered to worship God and give Him ultimate glory.

Truly there is NO book on earth like the Bible. It stands unique in its claims, superlative in its historic accuracy, and POWERFUL in its effect on believers and skeptics. Ultimately, for you, it is God’s love letter to you, and an accumulation of His “very great and precious promises” that allow you to escape “the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4). Consider Scripture as “He whispers in your ear,” the verbal side to His relationship with you.