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).