The wall of Bible Study

I was raised in a Nazarene environment.  We attended the Church of the Nazarene, listened to Nazarene preaching, went to Nazarene camp meetings, played and sang Nazarene songs, and studied Nazarene material. (As a side note, I sometimes wished we were Baptist.  Everyone knew what a Baptist was but most thought that Nazarenes were some sort of cult.  I'm not sure we have progressed much from those times.)  I remember a little devotional book that provided us with materials to consider.  It was called the "Come Ye Apart". 

I sort of laugh at it today because we talk about having a "come apart" meaning that we fly off the rocker or go sort of crazy...but back then "come ye apart" meant to come apart and rest awhile.  I'm chasing rabbits again.

There are other devotional books around.  "The Upper Room" and "Beside Still Waters" are just two.  You can get a lot of help and encouragement from these books.

There are many books that I treasure which I read, sometime over and over again.  I don't want to diminish the importance of those Godly books that help us in our Christian experience.

But if we want to protect ourselves and our Christian lives from Satan we need to build a wall of Bible study.  Not studying good books, or devotionals but the Word of God. 

A pastor friend referred to it as "the living" Word of God.  It is alive and brings new light and insight to us every time we read it.  I have a habit of writing in my copy of the Word.  If God speaks to me in a certain passage I make a little note out to the side.  Sometimes I put a date beside it.  Then, perhaps years later, I find in re-reading that same passage it says something entirely different to me.  It addresses another issue in another way. The Word is alive. 

You can read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn or Shakespeare or whatever book you want to read and when you go back and read it....it says the same thing.  But the Bible is alive and speaks to the situations we face in a new and exciting way each time we read it. 

And before I go let me say we need to do more than just read through the Bible.  We need to study the Bible.  There are plenty of books to help you understand the Bible.  Dictionaries, concordance, topical Bibles, reference books, various interpretations all lend aid to your understanding of God's
Word. 

Read it, study it, memorize it, carry it with you, don't leave home without it.  Surround your self and your home with the Word of God.  It is a wall that will prevent your enemy from entering your city.