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Even a King Needs to Have a Quiet Time

SUSAN TYNER|CONTRIBUTOR When it comes to having a moment of private worship with God, lots of things tend to get in the way. A snooze button, a stack of work deadlines, a pile of laundry. Imagine if you were a king with a whole country to run. The pressures of managing a national economy, foreign affairs, and court intrigues would wake me up and carry me past my Bible and towards the shower to meet all the demands. For King Josiah in 2 Kings 22, God decided even a king needs to read his Bible. Lost and Found Josiah was a young king who loved God, made evident by his wreaking havoc on all false worship centers in Judah and Israel. But one day, when his scribe came by to report progress at the temple, he casually added that the priest had found a book. This paper scroll, probably Moses’s Book of Deuteronomy, hit the light of day after being missing for years. What’s crazy is that the book was lost in the first place. After all, it was the covenant agreement of God with His people. These were the founding principles of their nation; the vows of the relationship between God and Israel. Imagine us misplacing the U.S. Constitution or a wedding ring.  No wonder so much evil had happened in God’s land when His people didn’t value this book enough to keep up with it. Had someone misplaced it as they made room for more important things, like Baal hymnals or Asherah collection plates? Did they discover it dusty, smushed under other scrolls and cobwebs in some janitor’s closet?...

Even a King Needs to Have a Quiet Time2023-08-15T13:18:49+00:00

What it Means to Meditate on the Word of God

CHRISTINA FOX|EDITOR “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15). A few years post-college, I worked as a family counselor for a local non-for profit. During a staff meeting one week, my boss announced that one of the team members would lead us in a time of guided meditation. Though I had heard about the practice, I didn’t know what to expect. My co-worker began by instructing us to empty our minds. She continued on through various exercises to bring us to a place of relaxation so that we would encounter a place of peace in our minds. I soon found myself feeling uncomfortable with the exercise and instead spent the time in silent prayer. After the exercise was over, a few people shared their experiences—one even shared how she had relived her birth into this world! I share this story because sometimes when we come across a reference in Scripture about meditating on God’s Word, as in the passage above, we might be confused, especially if we use the word “meditate” as other religions or philosophies might use it. The key difference is that biblical meditation isn’t about emptying the mind, but about focusing it on God and his Word. It isn’t about seeking a higher form of consciousness in order to reach our inner divinity; rather, it is about communion with God through prayer and Scripture. It isn’t about seeking access to divine resources found within oneself, but about accessing and feasting on the divine Word of God—which is our very life (Deut. 32:47). J.I. Packer once wrote in Knowing God, “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God...

What it Means to Meditate on the Word of God2023-08-15T13:21:03+00:00

Entrusted to be Invested

KAREN HODGE|CONTRIBUTOR You are rich friend! Maybe you don't believe me because you bumped up against the "not-enoughness" of life at some hard point today. Perhaps you do not think you have enough time, resources, or energy to do what you feel like God is calling you to do. This scarcity mindset depletes our joy. This summer, I pray as we study First Timothy together that you will survey your spiritual life and find yourself overflowing with contentment and gratitude for all the deposits of sound doctrine entrusted to you to be invested for His glory. At the heart, this is all about stewardship. If you grew up in the Hodge household, you would have heard on the regular, "All of life is stewardship!" We like to define stewardship as something of inestimable value entrusted by the King to be invested for kingdom purposes. A steward's chief responsibility is to be faithful to the Master. I want to open my First Timothy treasure chest and share some of the glorious riches God has entrusted me through studying this pastoral epistle. As one gospel friend to another, I invite you to hold me accountable when I forget these deposits of truth and pray that I will be a faithful steward as I seek to invest them in my church. Deposit #1- Sound doctrine leads to sound and healthy churches, homes, and living. "…the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service…" – 1 Timothy 1:11-12...

Entrusted to be Invested2023-06-01T19:57:29+00:00

Eight Benefits of a Bible Reading Plan

SARAH IVILL|CONTRIBUTOR There is no other time of year that Bible reading plans are more recommended than the month of January. With the new year, we are encouraged to begin new routines that will bring new growth, especially spiritual growth. But oftentimes the focus is on the logistics of the plan. For example, you can choose a chronological plan, a New Testament plan, the Robert Murray M’Cheyne Bible plan, the 52 week Bible reading plan, or the 5 day Bible reading program, among several others. Plans are good because they ensure we read the whole counsel of God, not just a few parts here and there, which inevitably leads to skewed doctrine. But instead of focusing on the different kinds of plans, I want to focus on the overall benefits of a Bible reading plan. In other words, why bother to choose a plan at all? Let me suggest eight reasons. First, God’s Word “is perfect, reviving the soul” (Ps. 19:7a). We don’t have to look any further for refreshment as we walk in the wilderness of this world. Scripture is our sole sustenance. If we don’t daily revive our soul in Scripture, we will begin to wilt spiritually... 

Eight Benefits of a Bible Reading Plan2023-03-24T17:45:01+00:00

No Empty Word: Five Reasons to Join Your Church Bible Study

SARAH IVILL|CONTRIBUTOR Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. Many women I know associate fall with the beginning of another school year. But I associate it with a new year of women’s ministry, particularly a new year of women’s Bible studies. I am excited that many churches are gearing up to kick-off a year of helping women grow in their relationship with God and their relationship with one another. As brochures are sent out, and registration emails arrive in your inbox, many of you are eager to sign up. But I also know that some of you are undecided about whether or not you have time in your schedule to attend a women’s Bible study. You are calculating the cost and feeling unsettled about if you should commit. Let me encourage you, then, with several reasons why you should say “Yes” to studying the word of God alongside the women in your church.    Consider the words of Moses, “God’s word is no empty word for me, but my very life, and by this word I will live” (Deut. 32:45-46). In addressing the Jews, Jesus clarifies, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). The purpose of studying Scripture is to lead us to Christ. The written word reveals the living word that “became flesh and dwelt among us” in order to reveal His glory, which is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We should say “Yes” to Bible study because Scripture leads us to Christ...  

No Empty Word: Five Reasons to Join Your Church Bible Study2023-03-24T17:50:29+00:00

Why Should I Study the Same Book Again?

CHRISTINE GORDON|GUEST It’s fall again. You survived the record heat of the summer, navigated the difficult relationships within your extended family on your July vacation, and the kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews are finally going back to school. The women’s ministry at your church announces the topic of study for the fall: Ephesians. Immediately you think, “But I’ve already studied that! I just did it a few years ago!”  Before you decide you’re out for the semester and schedule your weekly chiropractic appointment during Bible study hour, pause and consider. Maybe there is a good reason to study the same book again. Maybe your time could be well spent diving into some content you’ve already covered. Why? This Author and His Story are Different Think about other literature you may have reread in the past. Do you have a favorite story or novel you come back to? Maybe you miss certain characters and enjoy meeting them again for the first time, knowing the adventure that lies ahead of them. In the play “Shadowlands,” C.S. Lewis’s character says, “We read to know we are not alone.” It’s no wonder we come back to the stories we love. But what about the ultimate story?...

Why Should I Study the Same Book Again?2023-03-24T17:50:42+00:00

From Me-Focused to God-Focused Bible Study

REBEKAH MATT|GUEST In the 25 years that I’ve been a Christian, I’ve participated in a lot of Bible studies. There was the Bible study that encouraged me to be more like David, someone after God’s own heart. The Bible study that took me from Genesis to Revelation in ten weeks. Homespun Bible studies written by gifted women in my church and shiny new Bible studies from major publishers. Bible studies that provided free childcare (thank you, Lord) and Bible studies that had me in tears of conviction on the drive home. Big Bible studies in a room full of women and small Bible studies in a church member’s living room. Over all these years with all these different studies (and in my own personal study), I regularly looked to the Bible for life-changing words that would transform my relationships, improve my spiritual self-discipline, or solve other problems in my life. This kind of “what’s in it for me?” way to study the Bible is the default setting even among longtime Christians. Reading the Bible and seeking God’s personal, problem-solving message to you is very common—try googling “what Bible verse should I read when” and you’ll see what I mean. I did learn from these Bible studies. I sometimes even found answers to my problems or inspiration to become a better person in some particular way. But for more than two decades, even though I enjoyed and learned from the Bible studies that I had done, none of them answered the question that I didn’t even know I had: how to study and Bible, and why. Finding a new (to me) approach to Bible study I believe that any Bible reading is worthwhile, but seeing the Bible merely as a helpful life resource is very limiting. I’d been short-changing myself on the full benefits of reading the Bible by not thinking about how or why I was doing it....

From Me-Focused to God-Focused Bible Study2023-03-24T18:16:24+00:00

Why Go to Bible Study

COURTNEY DOCTOR|CONTRIBUTOR I went to my first Bible study because I was lonely. I was in my early twenties with two small children at home and was desperate to meet other women and make new friends. The offer for free child-care only sweetened the deal and I signed up, eager for a few hours away from children and hungry for adult conversation. I did not go to this study because I had a burning desire to know God or his Word. However, while I did meet new friends and benefitted from a few hours away from the demands of small children, ultimately, I met God. And I have continued to attend Bible studies ever since. If you attend a weekly Bible study of some kind—in your church, neighborhood, or community—I want to ask you why? Like me in my twenties, perhaps you attend Bible study to make friends or enjoy child-care. The reasons that compel us to walk in the door will vary from person to person and from season to season. But the bigger question I want us to consider is, Why do we go to Bible study at all? It’s an important question because the answer shapes our expectations. What should we expect to be the result of going to Bible study? I’d like to propose that, while there are a myriad of good things that happen in and through Bible study—we deepen friendships, grow in our knowledge of God’s Word, invest in the lives of those around us—one of the ultimate things that happens is transformation. If you are a Christian, God is at work in your life transforming you. He is changing you into a woman who is better able to discern his will (Rom. 12:2). He is changing you so that you will be better equipped to join him on his mission to seek and save the lost. He is transforming you so that you will be more consumed with his kingdom than with your own, with his glory than with yours. And he is changing you to be increasingly more like Jesus in every way (Rom. 8:29). One of the most remarkable things about this extra-ordinary transformation is that it happens in very ordinary ways. And “going to Bible study” is one of the ordinary means God uses to do his extraordinary work. But this transformation does not just happen automatically—it requires your participation. Two ways you can actively participate with God in your transformation is by doing your homework and by showing up to discuss it with others. DO THE HOMEWORK A lot of women I talk with think of the homework provided in their Bible study as optional or something they will be better able to prioritize in a different stage of life. But time in God’s Word is vital at every stage of life! And a good Bible study will provide you with the structure and opportunity to spend that time productively. Most Bible study homework will ask you to read a passage of Scripture, answer questions about the passage, and consider how you are to respond to what you’ve read. The actual moments you use to go through these steps can feel so ordinary. Some of you do your study early in the morning while you’re still in your pajamas. Others study over lunch while sitting at your desk. Some of you try to finish it while you’re waiting in the carpool line. Very average moments for the most part. But, as we move through the homework of our study—reading, answering questions, reflecting, and thinking about how we are to respond—God is at work! Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 that, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” This list is not exhaustive. As you read God’s Word, he, by his Spirit, is instructing you, teaching you, convicting you, encouraging you, rebuking you, feeding you, calling you, reminding you, humbling you, lifting you, comforting you, and loving you...

Why Go to Bible Study2023-03-24T18:17:35+00:00

Bible Study is Better in Community

CHRISTINE GORDON|GUEST If only I had a nickel, (or maybe a Starbucks tall Americano with cream), for every time I’ve heard the following: “I decided to read through the Bible. I made it all the way to the first couple of chapters of Leviticus. Then I stopped.” Yup. I’ve been there. You started with great intentions and a real desire to meet God in his word. Then you came to a verse like this, “And from the peace offering he shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD consisting of its fat: the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he is to remove with the kidneys” (Leviticus 3:9-10). At that point certain thoughts may have entered your mind. “Hm. Maybe I overestimated myself,” or “I mean, Bible reading is overrated, right?”  The Bible is a complicated book, and parts of it take real commitment to understand. It can be difficult to reach the point where the text is speaking to your heart and connecting you to the God you’re craving. How many genuinely Jesus-loving, God-seeking people have begun some sort of Bible study with great intentions only to stop a few days or weeks later? Then comes the shame and disappointment of quitting, along with the still present ache for a richer understanding of God’s word. Let’s step back for a moment from the world of Bible study and enter another field to help us understand what might help. A study reported by the National Institutes of Health found that 95% of those who started a weight loss program with friends completed the program, compared to a 76% completion rate for those who tackled the program alone.[1] A huge marketing push for many gyms includes a buddy program, or some sort of person-to-person accountability for those wanting to hit their fitness goals. These marketers aren’t just trying to help you make friends; they’ve tapped into something true about our God-imaging humanity: we do better together.  Genesis 1:26 reads, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” God exists in trinity; he lives in community. We, his image bearers, flourish when we do the same....

Bible Study is Better in Community2023-03-24T18:17:43+00:00
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