Study, Study, Study

2 Timothy 2:15-16
"15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness."

Some of the best advice that I can give you is to study hard! I am not talking about school, but Scripture (although you should study hard in school). Ever walked away from a conversation and thought to yourself "I feel dumber after that?" Yeah me too. We get caught up in a few conversations a day that have zero significance. That's fine because we need to relax sometimes, but I fear that a generation is rising up who do not desire knowledge and wisdom.

We have tried so hard to not be bookworms and/or legalistic in our approach to Scripture and have allowed ourselves to focus too much on the application of Scripture, while missing the meaning of it. The problem is, that you can't apply Scripture if you don't know what it means. Paul charged Timothy to work hard at being able to "rightly handle" the Bible. He wanted Timothy to be able to dissect every single line of Scripture and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, find out it's meaning.

Proverbs 4:7 tells us "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight." We must seek to gain wisdom and insight into God's Word. We live in a microwave culture. Everything we want is always right at our fingertips. We are satisfied with devotionals that contain one verse and a little commentary. It takes us five minutes to read and we have done our duty for the day.

But I think instead of microwave devotions, we need crock-pot devotions. We need to take our time with Scripture. Understand what it is saying, get the context of the passage, know what it meant to the people it was written to and what it means for us today. Marinate yourself in the Bible. If you don't understand a passage, study it until you do. Ask questions, talk about it. "Do your best" to understand every single word of the Bible. Be an intellectual.

Side note: Understand that I believe that you can have all the knowledge of God and not KNOW GOD. However, to fall in love with Him, we must know Him and know about Him. Head and heart cannot be separated. Wisdom leads us to Jesus. You can have all the knowledge in the world and miss Jesus but you cannot have Jesus without having knowledge and wisdom that come from Him and His Word.

The more I watch T.V. the more discouraged I get with our culture. Seriously, movies and T.V. shows in today's world seem to be teaching our children and teenagers to be as obnoxious as possible (see the t.v. show uncle grandpa for a prime example). The upcoming generation can become a vegetable in front of a T.V. or computer screen. Even the books they read do not impart knowledge, but drift them off into fantasy that profits them nothing (ergo Twilight). Nothing against t.v. or twilight, but when we sacrifice knowledge and searching the Scriptures, we can grow up to be Spiritually anemic.

Way too many church members and teenagers rely on their pastor and/or youth pastor to interpret the Scriptures for them. This is not a worker approved by God. We have to stop being consumers and put on our thinking caps, sit down with the Word and dig deep. I want to be able to learn something through tweets and Facebook posts, not feel like I'm wasting my time. Seek knowledge and wisdom.

Don't be a hermit whose nose never leaves the Bible because the truth of the Bible moves us to action, but don't run on the battlefield without being properly armed. Knowing theology will lead you to worship. Knowing deeper truths about God leads you to a deeper love for Him. Stop settling for what you already know. Seek to know more. Don't give up because it's hard to understand. The Holy Spirit will lead you to truth. Your brothers and sisters in Christ and your pastor will help you as well. Seek to Know HIM (Philippians 3:10).

Are You With Me?

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who wasn't paying any attention to you? That can be very frustrating but I fear it happens all too often in our society. I know that everyone is talking about how technology is ruining our social lives and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I do want to call your attention to a very serious issue in our culture today.

It's kind of ironic but sad at the same time that in an age with the most social media websites in history, we are becoming less and less social. Video games, t.v., smartphones, tablets, computers, iPods, noise cancelling headphones and many other things are consuming our attention. We can't even go to church these days without seeing at least 5 or 6 people distracted by what's on the screen that they hold in their hands. You can sit at a table with 20 people who are supposed to be fellowshipping and about 12 or more of them will be glued to their phones, completely disengaged from the people around them.

I am not anti-technology. I own many devices and spend much time on them. I just don't buy into the lie that you can be 'spending time' with someone if you can't pull away from your device. I think technology has so many goods and I don't have a problem with checking your Facebook, e-mail or text messages occasionally when you're with others. My question is always, where are you giving most of your attention. If your friends and family are always waiting on you to finish your text message/status update/tweet before they can finish their sentence or game that you're playing, then you not only have a problem, you have an ADDICTION.

Jesus gave His full attention to the people around Him. He listened and geared in to what they were saying or doing. He never had a conversation with someone where His mind drifted somewhere else. If He wanted to get away, He would actually leave to spend time with the Father. But we escape by not moving. We simply pull out our phones and drown out the world. Why do we think this is okay?

We need to learn to be where we are. That's so simple and yet so profound; be where you are. Don't give 50% of your attention to the people around you, because you're not really with them. Give 100% to those around you. That's one way you will "Think of others as more significant than yourself" (Philippians 2:3).

Kristin Jones said this: "In an era where we have more screens than people in our homes, we have nearly lost the art of having a good old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. And it’s costing us." She is so right. As believers we are called to 'bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). How can we do that if we don't listen long enough to hear what their burdens really are.

So how do we fix this? It's really quite simple: Put your phone (or whatever it is distracting you) away! Just leave it in your pocket. If someone texts you and it's not important (99% of text messages are absolutely pointless) wait until you're not with others to text them back. When you're with friends, family or whoever, leave your phone in your pocket and be with those people wholeheartedly. Realize that the people before you are more important than whatever you are doing on your phone and listen to them. Be with them!

I realize that most people won't even reach the end of this blog post because they got a Facebook notification that they HAD to check right away. I also realize that some of you made it to the end and are asking "What's the big deal?" Or are saying that "I'm just nit-picking." I believe at the core of this is selfishness. We believe that what is on our screens is more important than the people in front of us. Face it, if you were having a conversation with your favorite celebrity, you would be fully engaged because those people are our idols and probably the only people that are worth us putting our phones away for (except maybe for a picture or two).

Don't be selfish. Be like Jesus. Engage with people. Redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). Be with people; really with them. Especially when you're spending time with Jesus, leave your phone in another room. There is no text message or Facebook post important enough to draw you away from Him. Don't make Jesus ask what so many people around us are asking: "Are you with me?"