Revitalize Your Church

"Why does the Torah tell us to place the words upon your hearts?  Why doesn't it tell us to place them in our hearts?," a student asked the rabbi. The rabbi replied, "It is because our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the sacred words in our hearts.  So, we place them on top of our hearts.  And they stay there until, one day, our hearts are broken and the words fall in."

Come Let Us Reason Together , by J. A. Ludwig, of New Brunswick,    is a delightful 10 week Bible study guide to help Christians with practical dimensions of their faith.  Filled with great stories and creative lessons, this book is a great resource for small group leaders who want the Gospel in shoe-leather.  It includes helpful study guide questions and a spiritual gifts assessment.  Purchase Here at Christian Books .

A friend, explaining her recent burst of spiritual growth said, "Bible study.  I've read casually it all along -- but this year, I started studying it, and that's when I began to grow."  What is your plan to read and study the Bible in 2015?  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Nathan W. Bingham has posted several excellent Bible Reading plans at the Ligonier website.  Anyone interested in digging into Scripture will find something good here:  Bible Reading Plans for 2015 . Bible Gateway also offers several outstanding plans that can be sent directly to your smartphone or computer:  Bible Gateway Reading Plans . Other Bible study tools can be found at Bible Hub . A Bible that is falling apart is usually owned by somebody who isn't.

"A former professor at IWU used to say that some of the commands of Scripture were for 'one time' (go sell everything you have), some were for 'that time' (women veil your heads), and some were for 'all time' (love your neighbor). " -- Ken Schenck in a wonderful, thought-provoking post, Look for the All Time . I found this wisdom to be helpful in navigating and interpreting the Bible.  The only challenge is trying to figure out which part is which.

The great minister, Rev. A. J. Gordon, spoke of his grandmother back on the farm who had only two books in her possession: The Bible and Pilgrim's Progress. She studied these two books every day -- and in the process nurtured a deep devotion and sweet humility. Gordon's biographer writes, "Often did her grandson, coming back to the old home of summertime, marvel at the depths, the richness, the fullness of this hidden life." (W. B. Riley, The Perennial Revival , p. 166) A friend of the mighty prayer warrior, Robert Murray McCheyne. observed that as he studied the Scriptures, he "pored over the pages just exactly as a money-hunter might search through sands known to contain gold nuggets" and on every occasion brought forth a treasure. Do you think today's leanness of the evangelical soul is due, in part, to a lack of dilligent Bible study? It's certainly not a lack of resources.