Friends,
Good afternoon! I hope this email finds you all well. May God bless you today and throughout the week!
Annie has started a Bible Study for women as part of our Wednesday night ministry, and she and I were talking about some of what she would be presenting tonight. As she shared, there were a couple of things she had found in the text/topic that I had not really researched or considered before. I was reminded then of how exciting it is to me to know that someone else is digging into God’s Word and finding new truth and application for their life.
How often do we “read” the Bible but not really “learn” anything from it? Sometimes it can become just so many words on a page, and when we finish, we check it off our list, and go to the next item. No, God’s Word is something to be savored, something we should linger on and consider its meaning for us in that moment.
When I do Bible Study these days, I have as many as 8-10 Bibles spread around me along with 2-3 commentaries/dictionaries as I try to understand as much of the text as I can. I can’t say I always did this, but recently I have had such a hunger for this that I have so enjoyed digging in deeper and deeper. As I find out new details and things to add to my understanding, I am so blessed and challenged. I have much to learn, that much is certain.
But that also becomes the difficulty – as I have been preparing for preaching from Matthew for the next few months (likely more than a year, to be honest) I am already struck by Jesus’ words and his teachings. Can I be honest? I am going to say some things this Sunday that are likely to make several folks very uncomfortable, potentially even more than that! I certainly pray that I am faithful to the text and in my delivery, but as I see the radical faith and life that Christ calls us to, I can’t help but see some serious challenges that you and I (oh, yeah, I’m guilty, too!) really need to work on.
If you don’t regularly attend worship with a community of faith, I hope you’ll come join us Sunday. Warning! Might be some tough things to hear. But I also firmly believe you’ll come to know the love of God deeper through an engagement with the Bible and fellowship with others. Let’s take life seriously…let’s take God seriously! I don’t believe there is any one of us that couldn’t benefit from a deeper relationship with God.
My text Sunday will be Matthew 4:18-22. You can listen to last week’s sermon on Matthew 4:12-17 here. Hope to see you Sunday!
Grace and Peace
Pastor Bryon
