Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson
carson@gracechurchwi.org

Secretary Patti Hall
pattihall@gracechurchwi.org

PASTOR'S PENS 2007

Grace Church of Burlington January 21, 2007  “A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase.”             Menelik II was one of the greatest rulers in African history and the creator of modern Ethiopia. Born in 1844, he was captured during an enemy raid and held prisoner for ten years. Finally escaping, Menelik II declared himself head of the province of Shewa. He began conquering neighboring kingdoms and developed them into modern Ethiopia with himself as emperor. When Italy tried to take over Ethiopia Menekil’s army met and crushed the Italians at the Battle of Aduwa. This victory, as well as his efforts to modernize Ethiopia (schools, telephones, railroads), made Menekil famous. But the emperor was eccentric in one little known way. Whenever he was feeling ill, he would eat a few pages of the Bible, insisting that this always restored his health. One day in December 1913, recovering from a stroke and feeling extremely ill, he had the entire book of Kings torn from an Egyptian edition of the Bible, ate every page of it–and died. Friend, there’s no hocus-pocus in eating Gods Word physically. And when we in the Church talk about internalizing God’s Word, this is not what we are talking about.             During 2007 the Grace Church family is focusing on getting Back to the Book. It is not enough though to just read God’s Word, we must also study and apply it to our lives. We must internalize it. Now for most believers this is not new. Most have heard about the importance of daily Bible study.  There are many reasons why we need to study our Bible and know what is in it. Let me share just a few.             a) Studying our Bible enables us to grow spiritually. Our spiritual growth is directly dependant on our consistent intake of the Word of God as our spiritual food. The writer of Hebrews divides Biblical intake into milk and meat. “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14). A new convert to Christianity needs the milk of the Word so that they can begin to grow through that intake of spiritual nourishment. The disciple, however, ought to be taking in solid food, or meat as it is put in Hebrews for their growth beyond the newborn stage. Milk will help us grow to a certain point, but after that we need meat and protein for continued growth. So whether you are new to the faith or you have been a Christian for most of your life, you must have a regular intake of the Word of God to grow spiritually. The more mature you become in your faith though, the more meat, or in depth study, you are going to need to grow. If you choose not to study the Word of God, you will quickly become stagnant in your walk with Christ. And once you become stagnant, you fail to produce fruit for the kingdom of God.             b) Studying our Bible will enable us to know how to live. We also need to study the Word of God so that we can be guided and directed in our lives. If you’re looking for guidance in your life, you may go to your friend, or your parents, or your pastor. These people are often a great source for guidance, but the best guidance you can get if you are truly seeking God’s will for your life is from God himself. You can certainly do this through prayer but you must also do this through study. God has left us with His Word as our instruction manual. It’s our road map of how to live. When we read it and apply it to our lives, God will use it to give us direction.             c) Studying our Bible will help us be effective in evangelism. If we want to be effective in evangelism, we must consistently be in the Word of God. We just cannot be an effective witness for Christ if we do not know what the Bible tells us. We have to have something to say to unbelievers. Having a good knowledge of the Bible is an absolute must if we are going to lead others to Christ. That doesn’t mean we have to be Biblical scholars, but we do need to have a good understanding of the Scriptures. Are you equipped with the tools and knowledge you need to effectively share the Gospel with others? Without a disciplined routine of study it will be hard to know how to share Christ with others, so we must make it our daily habit to study God’s Word.             God has given us His Word as our road map. We are also to use It to help others find the way to Heaven. Faithfully being in the Book is critical if we are going to know how to live and be able to share with others who do not know the Lord how they too can have eternal life. So what about you? Are you faithfully in the Word?