Monday I was in sociology, and we had a man from the reading center come in and speak about proper studying techniques, etc, etc. At the end of his presentation he held up the syllabus and told us that it would be the most important thing we would read for each class. He called it our "Bible" for the course. That made me think, it's a fairly common thing that we do. But, there is something to be said about the Bible, that universally it is understood as a book of such importance and value, that we compare other documents to it in order to place emphasis on their importance to a certain subject.
Next class, math, same day my professor was in the middle of teaching and went on a tangent to explain that he is from Sri Lanka, and has been teaching for 10 years. He said he makes it a point to renew his material and update his teaching every year, which is good. He asked whether he would still be considered a 10 year professor had he not done this, immediately responding, no. He would be a one year professor because he would never have renewed his material, the knowledge would not be up to date. Stinkin' sweet! Relate that same story to our spiritual walks. If we were to never seek his word, never pray, never talk about him to others, our knowledge of him would be limited. We should all seek to know more of him, and allow him to be new to us everyday. Were we to not do this our relationship, our walk with him would suffer greatly! Think of it this way, if you were to never feed a child, would it grow? No, it would slowly die of starvation. In the same sense if we are never fed by His Word, our spiritual lives, like the starved child, would starve, and eventually die altogether. We are warned against being idle. A stagnant pond can yield no life. Neither can an idle faith.
Next day: In philosophy (already a promising course) the same man from the reading center came in to speak...on the same thing. However he made some points that I didn't pick up on last time. One was that if we aren't reading to learn every time we pick up a book, why are we reading? Good point. While there's certainly nothing wrong with reading for fun, when we are reading the Bible, or some sort of theology, religious, Christian book, and really if you think about it, this should apply to any book, regardless of subject, why are we reading it? What's the point if we do not approach each reading with the intent of learning something we hadn't known before, especially when it's about our Lord.
In addition, learning is a social skill: being able to converse intellectually, or fellowship, in our Bible studies, small groups, community groups - take advantage of the people around you. Bounce ideas off one another, openly discuss things you've been chewing on for awhile. And lastly, why do we learn? We learn so that we can share that knowledge with others. This is important! As Christians, we can't keep to ourselves what the Lord reveals to us. Share it! 2 Timothy 2:2 states "What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men that will be able to teach others also." Here's the cool part, God reveals himself to us in more than one way, at all times. Whether by natural revelation or special (the Scriptures) revelation. But, he speaks to us in whispers. It's a slight nudging to notice him. Oh that we would all have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The point is, however he chooses to speak to us, chances are, it's not meant solely for the individual. Do not be selfish with the knowledge of the Lord, because it is not meant to be kept a secret, and it is certainly not meant for one person. "What you have heard from me...entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
God is so good. He will teach us so much, but he always makes sure we don't fluff ourselves up so much that we get prideful. He loves us too much to see us become a Pharisee. After learning all this, I locked my keys in my car and was quickly reminded I'm not in control...He is. He loves me enough to keep me humble.
