Meet God and be transformed agents of His Work!

Nehemiah 8; Romans 12:1-3; Hebrews 3:12-13; 4:1-2; 5:11-6:3; James 1:22-25

 

 

The bottom line of why we are to study the Bible is so that we may know God, His Way, and grow in our knowledge and faith in Him so we can then be better used by Him.

We are called to spiritual growth-that is, the formation of the investment of faith Christ gives us that we give back to Him in dividends. This is a deep conviction of our faith, a practiced submission that shows our obedience, and a life of personal and relational maturity. We can't do this when we bring what we want into Scripture and not take out what God wants us to have! We have to listen to God; if not, we will not learn and then we will not grow and then we will not have a life of transformation. Instead, we will experience a storm-tossed sea of life, wayward in every perspective because our eyes and ears are not upon our Lord (James 1:2-8; Heb. 6:13-20).

What is the point of desiring to be a musician if you never intend to learn music and/or practice your instrument? What is the point of doing church if we do not equip the people to learn what we are about and what we are to do from the Bible? What is the point of being a Christian if we never read the directions to know what we should be doing? What point is there to the Christian life without the life-changing transformational life we can have through His Word, Work, and Holy Spirit? There is not much point without it. How do we achieve the transformation? The answer is simple: get into the Word! We have the tools to help you do this--Bible reading charts, plans, and insights for those just starting out to prepare sermons. You can, indeed, do it and remove Bible illiteracy from your life and church!

God desires us to be His, to listen to Him, and to trust and obey Him; He has designed us to be with Him in personal relationship, to seek Him and place Him first so that we might be more like Our Lord. We can meet with Him, we can trust in Him, we can expectantly be learners and doers of His Word and build an effectual church and life (2

Get into the Bible for Transformation

We meet with God to know Him; we open the Bible and read its words with anticipation and wonder as we commune with the Creator King of the universe who wants us to know Him.

The relationship building doesn't stop with heeding the simple glorious message of the Gospel; we must continue on, delving into God's Word. It is through this intentional learning that we capture His principles, letting us ponder His Truth and begin to apply ourselves to Him, conforming to His Word. Literally in John 6, we are called to 'feed' on Christ; we are to consume His work and principles both for living now and for eternity. This helps us have real meaning and a purposeful life by building our new life (2 Tim. 2:15).

Meeting with Our Lord is so important; it is how we are to grow in Christ! It is how we build our faith and spiritual formation in order to be our best for His Glory.

To do this, we must think beyond ourselves, beyond our past hurts, beyond past experiences and move from perception to concrete, living in the present. If we remain in our material thinking, only seeing what affects us personally or what hinders us or not seeing above and beyond where we are, we will remain in the world of selfishness and absurdity; life will not make sense, and we are left with only stress, despair, anxiety, and boredom. All this will be attributed to our alienation from God and/or our refusal to put our faith into a real able practice when we do know Him. When we 'feed' on our Lord, we will live an abundant and fulfilling life; only then, we can cross the obstacles and overcome life's ills and sin ( John 6:52-71; 14:17;16:1-15; Rom. 5:4-5; 7:21-25; 8:14, Gal. 4:6; 2 Cor. 3:18).

We commune with God to give Him our burdens and concerns. Think about these questions as you seek to deeper connection with the principles of God's Word into our lives, thinking, and behavior.

Seek Him and ask, what is my problem?
What am I doing wrong?
How can I be corrected?
What must I learn to grow in Christ?

We are enabled to grow By the Holy Spirit when our lives are transformed because we feed off Christ's precepts and life and get away from ourselves and the distractions that block our nurture of Him in order to apply ourselves to Him as He applied Himself for us (Neh. 8).

More here: http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=81337&columnid=3801