New Monmouth Musings: A Love Letter to His Children
Dear Family,
I love the little story old the pompous college professor
who was standing before his students while putting down the Bible. “This
doesn’t make any sense to me. It is just a bunch of unintelligible gibberish-just
a book of fairy tales,” he said with an air of intellectual superiority. With
that, one student boldly stood up and said, “Sir, the Bible is God’s love
letter to His children, and if you don’t understand it then perhaps it is
because you have been reading someone else’s mail.”
Yes, the Bible is God’s love letter to his children, and
yet so often those love letters go unread and unstudied.
As believers, we need to be students of the Word. We need
to be in the Word on a daily basis. The Israelites discovered when they sought
to gather huge amounts of manna and then store it, so they didn’t have to
gather it daily, it rotted. Neither can we expect to gain proper spiritual nourishment
by feasting on the Word for only one day while forgetting it the rest of the
week. God’s Word can be stored in our hearts, but unless it’s gathered daily,
it will quickly lose its nourishment.
Our study must be daily, and it should be systematic.
Whether we are studying the Bible from a bird’s eye view (viewing large chunks
of it-perhaps as reading through the Bible in a year), or a worm’s eye
approach, studying smaller amounts and breaking it down into little bits as we
reflect upon those paragraphs or verses or even words, we need to be studying
it regularly, consistently, and systematically.
We need to remain flexible in reading the bible, allowing
the Holy Spirit to guide us in regard to approach and application. We need to
find what works for us and stay at it until the Holy Spirit directs us down
another path. However we choose to read and study it, we need to be reminded of
Paul’s exhortation to Timothy: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one
approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles
the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15I close with this challenge from the pen of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “Never, never neglect the Word of God. The Word will make your heart rich with truth, rich with understanding, and then your conversation, when it flows from your mouth, will be like your heart, rich, soothing, and sweet. Make your heart full of rich, generous love, and then the stream that flows from our hand will be just as rich and generous as your heart. Above all, get Jesus to live in your heart, and then out of your heart shall flow rivers of living water, richer and more satisfying than the water of the well of Sychar of which Jacob drank. Oh go, Christian, to the great mine of riches and cry to the Holy Spirit to make your heart rich unto salvation. So shall your life and conversation be a boon to your fellow man; and when they see you, your face will be like an angel of God. Wise men will stand up when they see you, and men will give you reverence.”
This is the kind of man I want to be, and I know that it is
the kind of person you want to be as well. Let us be known as ‘people of the
book’, so if we are lagging behind in our study of God’s Word, why not use this
coming weekend to commit anew to a fresh study of God’s love letters to His
children.
Have a great weekend, and if we do get snow, as the weatherman
predicts, what better time to nestle up in a quiet place, open up the Bible and
feed upon the riches of God’s love, power and wisdom.
And a final word to remember: “it is not how many times you
have been through the Bible, but how many times the Bible has been through
you.”
Yours in faith and friendship,
Pastor Tom
