My sophomore year of college, shortly after I’d given my life to Christ, was when I truly began reading the Bible for myself. I remember sitting in a bagel shop on campus, a vanilla latte in had and my Bible opened to 1 Peter. As I read I marveled at the beauty of the words Peter wrote but I also became terribly confused. I poured over the words searching for their meaning. I read the same passage over and over again grasping for understanding. The words and concepts were foreign to me. I had never heard the word “cornerstone” let alone had the ability to comprehend the spiritual depth that Peter was intending. And then like a ton of bricks it hit me – Jesus was the cornerstone! He was the foundation of my newfound faith. Everything was built on Him. It was as if I had just put on my glasses after a long nights sleep; everything was clear and had purpose. Reading God’s Word is a critical part to growing as a disciple of Christ. Scripture transforms, comforts, encourages, guides and equips us. But of course we can’t try and comprehend it on our own, we must yield to the Spirit and ask God to illuminate our minds. That afternoon in the coffee shop was when Scripture truly came alive for me. It was the first time that I really saw and understood the power in God’s word. Since then, I’ve clung to Scripture in many circumstances. It has helped me make decisions, given me comfort and hope when I feel weary, and convicted me of sin that is lingering in my life. So what does it look like to really read the Bible? How exactly does it go from being “just another book” to the living, breathing Word of God? Here’s a few quick tips to get you started
About AngiAngi loves Jesus, coffee, baseball and baking cakes. She is a missionary to college students and can't think of anything she'd rather do to serve God. Angi first met the Lord while climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa but really understood His love and grace as a freshman in college. Her heart is to invest in college students in the same way that many others invested in her. You can find her blogging over at Stuff Angi Does where she tells stories about Jesus, college students, and life. You can also find her on facebook, twitter, pintrest and instagram. Before having kids my husband and I were pretty good at keeping plants alive. At one point we had somewhere between ten and twenty plants. The only problem was we would go on missions trips in the summer and have to find someone to plant sit. At the end of each summer we would end up with less plants than at the start of the summer. But when you have that many plants it's hard to remember which plant was missing (aka died under the sitters care.) Now that we have almost a half a dozen kids, our one plant seems like an incredible core to keep alive. The reality is, is that plants only need four things to grow; water, sun, soil and oxygen. Heck, we don't even have to make those things ourselves, God already made everything they need. It should not be that hard. But getting even those four essential things to our one little plant sometimes seems like the hardest thing in the world to do since there is so much else clamoring for our attention. Our spiritual growth can seem the same way. We really need only four things to grow in a relationship with the Lord; God's Word, connecting with other believers (fellowship), sharing the gospel with non-believers (evangelism) and prayer. But when there are a thousand things to do, those four things can easily be pushed to the back burner or become something to check off a list rather than an opportunity to really connect with the Lord. And when we do these four activities in our own strength and ability it doesn't actually produce growth anyway, just pride. Just as a leaf or fruit grows by staying connected to the branch with the four essential ingredients the same goes with our spiritual growth. We can do nothing of eternal significance, including manufacturing our own growth without remaining dependent and yielded to the Lord. But when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us and we actively and intentionally give time to these four essential growth elements the Lord brings about beautiful life transformation. About LauraLaura, the creator and host of Missional Women is married and has four kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 11 years serving with Master Plan Ministries. Laura is the Staff Women's Development Coordinator and has discipled over 150 girls, led over 30 Bible studies and speaks to college and women's groups. Laura has authored 5 books, including an award winning 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, and A Devotional Journey through Judges, a devotional to accompany the free online Bible study at TheBookofJudges.com. You can find her on facebook,twitter, pinterest, youtube, instagram and her author site. Imagine you pour yourself a full glass of milk. And you don’t want just a regular glass of milk, you want chocolate milk, so you get some syrup and dump it in. The syrup is in there, but until you stir it up, the milk is not going to taste or look like chocolate milk. The same with the Holy Spirit and our life. Our life can be compared to a glass of milk. When we surrender our life to Christ and receive His forgiveness, He puts the Holy Spirit inside of us and He can never get out. The very minute we yield our life and trust Christ’s perfection to be credited to our account we are filled with the Holy Spirit. He is not something we earn or an emotional experience. He is a gift, the third person of the trinity given as our comforter and teacher. But just as the chocolate was in the glass but you couldn’t see it, sometimes we don’t act the way we should either. In our fleshly nature, though filled with Holy Spirit, we don’t act the way God desires us to, we aren’t empowered by the Holy Spirit. It’s not until the chocolate is stirred up that we can actually tell the difference from the regular milk and the chocolate milk. The same with us. It’s not until we yield to letting the Holy Spirit live through us that others will be able to tell we are actually disciples and followers of Jesus. When we do live yielded and dependent on the Lord, we manifest the fruit of His Spirit. The fruit that is only capable of being produced in our hearts by the Holy Spirit not by us trying really hard to produce it-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This fruit can act for us like a temperature gauge of our hearts. If we aren’t sure if we are living by the strength of the Holy Spirit or by our own effort of trying hard we can test our fruit. We can ask ourselves things like, “In the last 20 minutes have I been loving (choosing what’s in the best interest of another)? Have I been patient and kind? Have I been gentle and self-controlled?” If so, that is not evidence of how great we are, but evidence we are living yielded to the Holy Spirit since those are only qualities produced by God. If the answers to those questions are no, then it’s an indicator to yield and surrender control yet again to Christ and His work in our life. About LauraLaura, the creator and host of Missional Women is married and has four kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 11 years serving with Master Plan Ministries. Laura is the Staff Women's Development Coordinator and has discipled over 150 girls, led over 30 Bible studies and speaks to college and women's groups. Laura has authored 5 books, including an award winning 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, and A Devotional Journey through Judges, a devotional to accompany the free online Bible study at TheBookofJudges.com. You can find her on facebook,twitter, pinterest, youtube, instagram and her author site. When I was in college, I had a summer where I made some bad choices. I was choosing sin after sin, falling deeper and deeper into my flesh. I had been a Christian at this point for 12 years. I would choose sin and then ask myself the next morning, “What’s wrong with me?” and then promise that I wouldn’t do it again. I couldn’t understand why as a Christian I still chose sin. Or how God could even love me after I sinned. I even questioned God asking questions like, “Is it too late to come back to you?” It wasn’t too late for me to come back. God had never left me. He still saw me through His Son Jesus. His forgiveness is unending. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” How far is the east from the west? It is infinitely far! About RhondaRhonda attended Oklahoma Baptist University for two years until she felt called to reach out to a secular campus. She then transferred to Mesa State where she graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in Counseling Psychology. She now serves as a missionary to college students and has a passion for reaching out to young women. God has a purpose and design for who he wants Godly women to be, and Rhonda is excited about helping women find freedom and joy in His purpose. What leads your life? When I was in high school, and through much of my college career, feelings led my life and my faith. When I was happy, it must be because I had faith. And if I was sad, then I must be doing something wrong. There must be some area in my life where I was in sin- otherwise I wouldn’t be sad... or bad things wouldn’t be happening! Anytime negative circumstances or feelings happened in my life, I equated it with me having a lack of faith. I didn’t even know that there was another way to think! Then in college I was introduced to the idea that I did not have to walk by faith in my feelings, but that I can actually walk by faith in God’s Word! Later this would be tested. After being married for a few years and trying and trying to get pregnant, Jesse and I found out that it was medically not a possibility for us to have children biologically. I was devastated. I asked God why. I cried into my pillow. I FELT like I had no purpose. If I had chosen to walk in my feelings I would have curled up in bed and not emerged. My FEELINGS were telling me that my only purpose in life was to be a wife and mom. My FEELINGS told me that God had nothing good for me! But God reminded me to put my faith in the TRUTH (fact) of his word and that my feelings and circumstances would follow. He reminded me of my purpose- to Love others... to share the gospel... to glorify Him. I still had feelings, but chose to walk in the truth that my purpose wasn’t dictated by whether or not I ever got to be a mom. I still grieved, but even in the midst of grieving, I was able to focus on His Word and keep putting my faith in the truth. Do you sometimes ride the roller coaster of feelings based faith? Does it help to know that you can put your faith in the unfallible word of God instead of feelings? Our feelings can lie- God’s Word never does! I pray your faith would be united through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17- So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. About RhondaRhonda attended Oklahoma Baptist University for two years until she felt called to reach out to a secular campus. She then transferred to Mesa State where she graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in Counseling Psychology. She now serves as a missionary to college students and has a passion for reaching out to young women. God has a purpose and design for who he wants Godly women to be, and Rhonda is excited about helping women find freedom and joy in His purpose. |