The Heart of a Scholar

Be an honest scholar. Have a heart that is tender towards Him and weigh everything by Scripture. What does it really say? You can't pick and choose, “I like this verse but I don’t like that one”, or “God meant this verse but He didn’t mean that verse”.

Study it for yourself. It's not good enough to take someone else's word for it. It’s not good enough to take a famous preacher’s word for it. It’s not good enough to take a respected Bible teacher’s word for it. You must become a student of the Bible. You must come to know Scripture for yourself and let God make the truth come alive in your heart. 

This assumes, of course, that God wants to communicate and interact with you directly. And that, my friend, is the right assumption. 

Shaking Has A Purpose

I sense that the Holy Spirit is saying something, right here and right now, to His people. I'm not getting word-for-word dialogue from God that I can share word-for-word. However, I am having a consistent theme in my spirit. I'll try to put what I'm sensing into words that share that essence. At times like this, I'll continue to search the Holy Spirit and seek out better words, sometimes finding them. As that happens, I'll edit this post.

This message is parallel to what I've sensed off and on over the years, but now it is much more urgent.

Radical, Part 1

Warning: I use the word "radical" a lot in this post. I meant to. 

At the time I'm writing this blog post, I've been asked to lead a few men through a short-term Bible study titled "Radical". By the time you see this blog post, I'm probably already through it. At this moment, though, I don't know anything about it other than the title. I'll begin looking at the course materials in the next few days.

The course title, though, has already stirred my heart. Radical. What a title! It's a topic I've given considerable thought to over the years, mostly because I've glimpsed how I fell short in that regard. Radical. That's the kind of Christian life I want to lead, yet looking back, it's clear that I've talked about it much more than I've actually done it.