1. What reasons should we read God's Word? How has it impacted your life so far?
First - we don't read the Word of God we listen to Him!!
Now the first words I heard from the Word of God were: "Read Your Bible!"
So I did. I read it from front to back a bit each day and it took about nine months to finish it. Of course that was not the end of reading it. Better yet the reading of the Bible pointed me to Jesus Christ and getting to know Him personally as "The Word of God" - meaning the One who I can personally hear from, talk with, and get to know, who has the words of God for me and my life. So He is the "Word of God" - just like the Bible explains!
Rev 19:13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Jn 1: 1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
Frankly - I am not sure how a person can read the Bible and not know the Jesus Christ is and always has been "The Word of God" nor that the purpose of the scared writing are to bring us to Him who is called "The Word of God"
2 Tim 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom
that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2. What are some practical ways we can become more familiar with, memorize, and meditate on the Scriptures?
For me, the practical way of becoming more familiar with the Bible is to talk to my Lord and Teacher, Jesus Christ about the Scriptures!!
I mean, since He told me to read it and since He is the Teacher, who better to get to know and understand the Scriptures than to talk to Him about them. Not only that but as the Teacher, He usually has places that He wants me to read so we can talk about them. Like the time He asked me to go to Ezk 3 and read. As I read I started talking to me specifically giving me instructions that almost match up perfectly with what He was telling Ezekiel. I was reading:
Ezk 3:4-9 Then He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. “For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language,
but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. “Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. “Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.”
As I was reading I could also hear Him telling me that He was not sending me to a "people of unintelligible speech or difficult language" but He was sending me 'to them who should listen to you', but He explained that they would not be willing to listen to me since they were unwilling to listen to Him.
And it seems He is consistent about this, because again this morning He asked me to post, and when I asked Him what, He explain it was the same thing. He wants His people to seek Him and listen to what He has to say. He really wants to be known as 'The Word of God', meaning the One who they get the words of God from. He wants to be your Teacher.
3. What are you reading in the Bible currently? What excites you? What stands out?
I think I kind of answered this above. As for what excites me - He does!! I still find it amazing that the Word of God (Jesus Christ), the One through whom all things were made, actually talks to me. Of course not just me. I like talking to His creation, but they don't seem to want to hear from Him. How could we not know how badly He wants to talk to us. How can we just keep on rejecting the fact that He is always with us and He really loves us - so as to seek Him? I get busy, and forget to look for Him. I even get upset at things and sometimes don't want to hear from Him. Never-the-less - hearing from Him personally is what excites me!! So I do love telling people about Him - that He is indeed there for them.
‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
The above verse is probably my favorite because it clearly explains that He is just standing there all the time for anyone, and is constantly trying to get our attention by speaking to us with His voice. Sadly, we just don't open up to Him. To often the following verse applies to us:
Jn 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
Why do we call the Scriptures "The Word of God" when they clearly call Him the Word of God? Is it because we are searching the Scriptures thinking in them we are going to get eternal life as opposed to going to Him and listening to Him so that you may have life?
How many people get excited about religion instead of about Him? He is exciting!! The words He says to me personally are fantastic. The things I have seen Him do around me are incredible. I have seen Him do hundreds of miracles around me. And the things I have seen almost sound crazy to me when I recount them. I left a small few in the testimony section. Very few post there, so even though it was a while ago they can easily be found. Yet why is that so. Incredible testimonies should be the most common posts on this forum, should they not?
4. How much of the Bible have you read, memorized, and meditated on so far?
I don't make it my goal to memorized any of the Bible, but He often has me thinking about certain verses. And some verses have such practical meaning I can help but almost having them memorized
For example the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit about so for practical reasons we need to test the spirits. That test is found in 1 Jn 4 verses 1-3 - which I don't have memorized nor do I try and memorize it - but it goes something like - Beloved I do not want you to be unaware, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So test the spirits. By this you will know the Spirit of God - that all spirits that tell you Jesus Christ has come in the flesh are from God and every spirit that does not confess this is not of God. --- Ok - I am sure that was a poor job of giving that verse - but since I do have ears to hear and the need to use discernment when using my spiritual ears I do wind up using that test often!
The results are interesting. I am always amazed that I can pick up a small quite spiritual voice then ask that spirit to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and instantly nothing - it's just gone. And more amazing is when that spirit has the nerve to telling me -'I can't tell you that'. It almost funny. Yet you can't test the spirits as specifically instructed in the Bible unless you first have ears to hear. Yet if you do have ears to hear are we not going to practice using our spiritual ears? That brings me to another verse that I have not memorized but I kind of know for practical reasons. It basically says that by practicing using our spiritual senses (and we have five physical senses so don't we have five spiritual senses) we learn to discern good from evil.
Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
So yeah- while I don't work at memorizing verses at all I can't help to think about many of them, simply because they have practical purposes in my life.
Of course I also think about some of the bits of wisdom He personally has told me. Things like:
WE HEAR WISDOM, BUT IS IT THE HEARING OR THE ACTING UPON IT THAT MAKES A MAN WISE?
YOU DIDN’T MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD, BUT YOU CAN MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD.
AS INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN TO A SERVANT, AND WISDOM AND PARABLES TO A SON, AND AS JOKES ARE GIVEN TO A FRIEND, SO I LOVE YOU IS SAID TO A BRIDE.
WHAT TEACHER DOESN’T PUT A BOOK IN FRONT OF HIS STUDENTS TODAY; YET NOT JUST A BOOK BUT OVERHEAD TRANSPARENCIES, VISUALS, AND OTHER MATERIAL? FOR I TELL YOU TRULY, IF THEY ARE NOT LISTENING TO ME THEY ARE NOT MY PUPIL, THEY ARE NOT MY STUDENT; I TELL YOU TRULY, THEY ARE NOT MY DISCIPLE UNLESS THEY ARE HEARING FROM ME. SO DON’T TELL THEM TO READ THE BOOK, THEM TO TAKE THE CLASS!”
WHEN WE TALK TO GOD, GOD TALKS TO US……. WHEN WE LISTEN TO GOD, GOD LISTENS TO US!
I like the Scriptures - but honestly - I like hearing from Him personally more - just because it is personal. I especially like it when I hear Him tell me. "Karl, I love you". Imagine Him - the living Word of God who created all things telling me personally that He loves me. So it is that He excites me!!!
