10 Years In Daily Study

Today marks 10 years of daily studying the Word of God consistently. According to my records, I written over 2000 pages containing over 950,000 words and made 1925 blog posts (more if you count before my blog started). And what have I gotten out of all this time with the LORD; just getting started.

As a Christian and follower of Jesus for over 40 years of my life, I was not consistent in my independent study of Gods Word. I was and do consistently attend church and even bible study, yet until 10 years ago, I was not in daily study of His Word. Oh, I could recite some scripture, and knew my way around a hymnal, but I was not in daily commune with the LORD based on my learning from Him.

10 years ago a friend of mine challenged me to read and study Gods Word and send her an email as an accountability exercise. And the accountability worked, as we are here now 10 years later, and I am still studying Gods Word daily.

“¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

Learning is a lifelong process and should not be left to a few instances and expect to get the kind of depth of learning to last a lifetime. There is learning and then reviewing and then studying again to fully understand. And then just when you think you have learned it all, you find another perspective that changes everything. This is what is/has happened to me over this 10 years. I have gone through the same passages a number of times and each time God reveals something new, at least new to me.

I mentioned that I am just getting started after all this time and that is absolutely the truth. God is not done with me yet and daily I pray that He will reveal more and give me the opportunity to share it with others. 10 years in the daily study of Gods Word and I have not even scratched the surface. The LORD has more for me I am here for it.

What does your study of Gods Word look like? Are you getting His word from your weekly attendance of the church service? What if you were to take a few minutes every day to dive into His Word and see what He has for you?

Discipline Is Not the End

Get in trouble and face discipline. And then get in trouble again and face discipline. At some point we learn and stay away from trouble. But see the pattern here, discipline is not the end of it all. This is something that Cain learned from God after killing his brother Abel.

“¹³Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear. ¹⁴Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’ ¹⁵Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.’” – Genesis 4:13-15 (ESV)

Cain was being disciplined for the act of killing His brother and sinning against God. He was sure that this would be the end and he would surely die soon at the hand of God or some other party. Well, I can say that I would likely be thinking the same thing. I know that even now when I sin, I expect the worst and that things may come to an end.

But what do we see from God, mercy. Was God angry with Cain, sure. Was God right in disciplining Cain for the sin, of course. Was God well within Himself to make this the end of Cain, I believe so. But, God did not make this the end, in fact when you look at verse 15, God went forward with ensuring Cain’s protection that he would continue and bear fruit for the LORD.

I see this morning that sin is not the end. When we are repentant, the LORD will show mercy to us, forgive us, and protect us for His good work. So the discipline is there to strengthen us that we would go forward having learned from the instance and do the work of God.

What is your view of discipline? Do you see it as the end of all things? What if you were to recognize it for the learning and growth opportunity that is provides in your walk with Christ?

Wisdom Through Reproof

It is good to be corrected when we are doing or have done wrong. It is in the correction that we learn.

“¹⁵The rod and reproof give wisdom,

but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”

— Proverbs 29:15 (ESV)

It would be great if we were to be able to learn all that we need to know without any instruction or correction. The real world does not work that way. We will make mistakes and should embrace them so that we might learn. Notice the verse above, a child that is left on their own without teachings and learning from their parents is a child that is not going to be on the right path. It is important that we are out there learning through doing and making mistakes.

Now I know, not all of us have those parents that teach us the ways to move forward, and in some of those cases, there may be parents that are tearing us down for not knowing. In those cases, I am sure that there was or is someone in our lives that will take on the role of the parent to teach once things do not go as planned.

I am pretty sure that those who have made mistakes, were corrected and moved forward are those who have done pretty well in the world (and I am not speaking of monetarily). I just had a conversation with my mother about my youngest son and his decisions in life. He chose to join the Navy after trying two years of university. He learned to give things a try and learn from them. He failed, although he did not give up. He continued to look forward and learn. It was fully his decision and as we speak to him we can hear that he feels as though he has made the right choice. He learned from his failure and carried it forward to the now and into his future. My mother is proud of the learning that he gained and of the learning that I gained to lead him to continue trying and learning.

God has given each of us those in our lives who point us in the direction we should go and correct us when we get off track. The LORD gives us the ultimate direction, yet it is those parental figures in our lives who hold us to account to move that direction. It is the reproof or correction from those parental figures that gives us the defined direction.

What direction are you going? Are you just plowing ahead and continuing to move with reckless abandon? What if you took a moment to listen to the parental figures around you and learned from the mistakes you make to press forward in the direction that God has for you?