Shively Christian Church

One of the areas that the Christian Church, as a whole, seems to fall short in is our time taken for personal preparation. About 10 years ago, I was working part time in a warehouse for a now defunct electronics company. There was an interesting assortment of guys working there. Guys with shaved heads and tattoos, guys with drug problems, and another guy who didn't seem to fit the stereotypical "warehouse guy" mold. He was one of the computer salesmen who pulled some extra hours in the warehouse on Saturday mornings with the rest of us. 

 

He told me that he had a hard time talking with Christians most of the time because they didn't seem to know what they were talking about or why they believed what they did. They could spout out trite answers, shallow stuff with no meaning, but they couldn't really defend themselves. He was not a Christian himself, but he enjoyed talking about spiritual things, and leaned more toward asian religions.

 

That being said, I'm afraid he was right, and still seems to be. Christians seem to be really good at spitting out bumper sticker phrases, or something they saw on a t-shirt, but they couldn't go any deeper than that. Their recall of Scripture was minimal, so all they had to defend themselves with was their emotions and some vague Sunday School references.

 

There is no reason that we should be that lax in our study. If you can read this right now, and understand what I'm saying, then you can read the Bible and know what going on there, too. If your version at home is hard to understand, there are plenty more out there that say the exact same thing, but use a more modern language. There really is a translation out there for everyone. None of us are excused from reading the Bible. King David wrote in the psalms that he meditated on the Law of the Lord day and night. Just thinking about how to apply what the Bible teaches on a day-to-day basis helps us to gain understanding of what God is saying to us through His Word.

 

Continued study may not sound like fun, but the study we do with Scripture isn't like the study we did in school. We aren't just looking for the bold words, or cramming for a test on Friday. Scripture is our daily guide, along with the Spirit, that helps us navigate those situations where we may be tempted, or need some sort of guidance deeper than our own experience.

 

Don't let that Bible get dusty, find some books at your local Christian bookstore that will challenge you in your daily walk. Do not be content to just "know what you know" but rather dig deep into the wealth of wisdom that can be found in God's Word today. If you need some help beefing up in why you believe what you do, we'd love to help you out with that any way we can...just let us know.