Are you learning it, loving it, living it?

Published 5:40 am Sunday, May 6, 2018

If you wanted to make an effort of starting a multi-billion dollar tech company listening to what Bill Gates has to say about the subject would be a good idea. If you have the desire to become a theoretical physicist, then reading everything possible from the works of Albert Einstein would be advantageous. In every field of endeavor, studying under a master, being mentored by the best, being guided by someone successful who was on the ground floor is the ideal scenario.

People tend to learn about things they are interested. However the interest may be there for different reasons – Example: one person may want to start a tech business because they see it as a way to obtain wealth, another person loves doing that type of work and wants to spend his life working with computers, and his passion turns into a profession.

What about life? Who would be a good mentor for life? Not only our occupation, but guiding us into all of life – personal relationships, discovering our life path, our character, how to raise children, even proceeding into the afterlife, and everything else. Everyone should know someone they respect or admire in one or more of these areas. However, why not go to the person who was on the ground floor for each one of life’s circumstances – the creator of life Himself – God?

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While rubbing elbows with fellow ministers, I have discovered if there is something that bewilders them more than anything else it is the lack of Scripture knowledge among Christians. It is bewildering because Christians say they love God; that they desire to follow His plan for their lives; they express the willingness to keep His commandments; yet little study of His Word gets accomplished.

If someone wanted to know, in the simplest terms, how to live a Christian life, the answer would be this (assuming the person is already a Christian), “Grab your Bible and learn it, love it, live it.”

LEARN IT

Matthew 22:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”

Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

Deuteronomy 17:19, “And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:”

2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

LOVE IT

Psalm 119:47, “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.”

Psalm 119:72, “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.”

Psalm 119:97, “O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.”

Psalm 119:140, “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.”

Jeremiah 15:16, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them: and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”

LIVE IT

Matthew 4:4, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Acts 5:20, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”

Philippians 4:16, “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

Do you study the Bible, or does the Book sit until the next ride to church? Is your Bible read regularly or only as a last resort? Can you honestly say you are learning it?

When you love someone, there is a desire to be with them, learn about them, to have the relationship grow stronger. If you love the Scriptures, it will be the same way.

Studying the Scripture and loving the word will bring about the living part naturally.

Notice the final verse above, Philippians 4:16 – Paul talks about living a vain life if it is not lived “holding forth the word of life.”

Christian, how is it going? Are you learning it, loving it, living it?

Preacher Johnson is pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Indiana. Email: preacherspoint@gmail.com. Preacher Johnson is available for revivals, prophecy conferences and other speaking. Sermons and archived Preacher’s Point can be found at www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com.