Studying the Word

Lately there is a deep hunger in me to know the Word so much deeper, so much better. I have committed myself to memorizing scripture everyday. No lunch for me if I don't. I post this here to hold myself accountable to those who read this. So yes, scold me if you see me eating lunch and being unable to quote you what I’ve learnt by heart for today. (and if lunch isn’t enough a motivation, then perhaps dinner will be included on the list too.) I will insist with how I live my life, that the importance of having my daily bread from Him far exceeds what goes into my mouth, for man shall not live by bread alone, but by the word of God. I am convinced that spiritual food via the word of God is a necessary condition for life. Physical food is merely a condition of sufficiency.

But more than that I have been praying over how the Word ought to be studied.

How clearly I remember the dissatisfaction of my soul when the Word is presented only as an intellectual discussion of biblical concepts that link up, arguments that they don't, schools of thought, and so on and so forth. How much worse, when the word is solely delivered ad verbatim as text to be memorised!

(For to the Pharisees, the sign of utmost devotion to God was how well they knew the word. But their lives remained trapped in unfulfilment and discontent, for when the word became about concepts, or worse still, was revered in the place of God, their attention shifted from being tested and searched by the word, to simply knowing a bunch of ideas contained in text, and thus giving birth to pride because they felt they had it all down pat.)

Surely there must be a place for all these things. But just as shark's fin soup without shark's fin is never as satisfying as the real thing, so there must be some other important ingredient in the whole recipe to satisfying word study.

How then, can the study of the word give life?


The Word is a meeting, not a message.

This I firmly believe, and hold to.

When He takes you back to His word, He's really tapping on every line in there, making your heart scrutinise every word, asking you if your heart has truly believed what is written, just as it is written. Often He asks me, "Does your heart know it?" "Do you live it with conviction?", "Where do you struggle?", "Honestly?", "What do you need to surrender?", "Will you trust Me?", "Will you let me be your all?", "Am I not enough for you?" The questions that HE raises in our qt are more important than our own. The heart is searched and tested in the fire of His word. All dross is set aside to be burnt away, (sometimes it hurts) and over time we are purified. In this way the little lies we might still hold to in constructing an idea of who He is are done away with, the little lies about who we are in Him, and what we should worry about are removed. It frees us up to live with complete trust. It is not until the heart is examined through the word that we come to see our depravity, realise our dire need for grace, and experience daily, firsthand, the loving heart of God.

How?

To Joshua, at the cusp of Israel's final frontier into the promised land, having to fill the all-too-big shoes of Moses recently departed, God's first command to him was:

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Day and night mind you! It’s a little like a cow chewing its cud.

And again, the challenge issued through our study of His word must be acted on. And all this done in faith. If God reveals we have believed in a lie, it is our job to rebuke it and guard against it. If God tells us to trust Him and make a difficult decision, knowing full well what we stand to lose, it is our privilege to have this opportunity of witnessing His love and faithfulness in spite of everything. (and realising later that we gave up what we could not keep to gain what we cannot lose.) If our time with God doesn't challenge us out of our comfort zones to stretch our faith and engage/involve more of God in our everyday lives, we have utterly short changed ourselves of the opportunity to know Him. There is no justification then, for those who cry to see Him, but refuse to do anything about themselves till they do. He's already spelt out how we will know He's for real! If we won’t take Him at His word, what's to keep us from cynicism at every miracle? The difference between the Pharisees, and those who knew God, was simple faith in action. Both knew the word, the former simply did not trust God knew best for them, (perhaps because they didn't realise they didn't have to understand everything before having some faith,) and so did not do as He bid. =)

And yes, it's all too easy to rationalize what God wants from us, into what we want to believe He wants from us. Of course when we choose to lie to ourselves this way, the quieter His voice will become, the further we will be from life. He still wouldn't have stopped speaking, but we'd have clogged the ears of our hearts so that they cannot discern truth and life from lies and death.
For God judges the heart of man, and the righteousness of his deeds by the faith in his heart, the faith aimed at pleasing God. It is possible to do everything prescribed in the law and not be righteous. It is possible to cast out demons in His name, and yet be told "depart from me, I never knew you".

I never want to be in the shoes of a Pharisee. I've tasted better now. For them there was nothing new every morning. Life was all there, preserved in dead text, once in a while resurrected in great ideas/perspectives they thought only they had, but had probably crossed the minds of just about every third man in their professional ancestry.

Coming back to us, isn't this exactly how we grow complacent as Christians? We think we've got all God has to give, when in truth we short change ourselves of so much more.

There is a need to guard the quality of our time with God. The study of the word must always challenge our certainty in Him, that our convictions might be tested, that our hearts be encouraged, and our faith strengthened.

I'm going to trust Him to teach me to steward His word better. =)