Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
From human reasoning the combination of reading, studying the bible and prayer are three spiritual disciplines that every Christian should develop. However why would God command his children to read and study the Bible may be an underlining reason common to God and his children. Our desire to know God is the outcome of being reconciled to God and through the cross of Jesus Christ. Being born again was a choice God made and that act established a connection to the father as his son or daughter. Now we must learn to secure our connection to God by taking his word to heart out of reverence for God.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, Ephesians 2:18-19
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Every important part of our life changed for we have a new high priest, a new father, a new place to call home and a new Lord of Hosts. Being born again established a relationship with God as our heavenly father therefore we must learn the laws God governs his life by and uses to raise children to maturity.
We have been delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son Colossians 1:13.
Therefore we have been given citizenship in the kingdom of God and our behavior is governed by a different body of laws. Any citizen who is naturalized has to learn the law, history and culture of the land they want to be a citizen of. In addition we must submit to the authority and swear allegiance to those representing order. On the other hand our heavenly father wants us to mature the way he has trained us to think and act and because he has parental authority he will never ask our permission to discipline us in the way we should go. All because we relinquished our authority to do as we saw fit and submitted to God’s authority through Jesus Christ.
Why should we read the bible is a question that has been asked since God inspired his word through his prophets? Although reading and studying the bible is a Christian discipline, is just as much a spiritual sacrifice of obedience to conform to the image of Christ. We serve a God who desires a personal relationship with each of his children. Our relationship with God begins with a personal commitment to serve God the Father and Jesus Christ as Lord.
With this in mind God wants his children to physically mature as much as he wants them to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. God has commanded his children to consume the substances that ensure growth and development of his children. Therefore in God’s command to consume his word is a step by step way to accomplish his God’s will.
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8
To further develop your relationship with God you have to establish common grounds to communicate with God. The book of law is the written order of acceptable human behavior that God wants us to adopt and put into practice. God wants us to devour these laws by putting them into the place where we absorb food into our bodies. However knowledge the written laws of God is absorb through our eyes and ears. In essence our daily food and scriptures that we digest ensures that we grow to maturity both physically and mentally.
Food eaten is digested and provides energy for bodily functions but scriptures are taken to heart and there studied by way of meditation. The scriptures become guidelines to live by and they provide the knowledge that guides you through life. The mouth speaks from the treasure of the heart and the treasure becomes a shelter preserving the life of those who clings to its wisdom. Silently the knowledge you treasure in your heart lights your path; guides you through the persecutions, trials, temptations, and tribulation.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
Make every effort to excel as a student of God’s word to know and use it properly. False teachings are derived from carelessness, from taking things out of context and overlooking other passages on the same subject. This verse speaks of being diligent in managing the word of truth; and also refers to adding to its content and omitting some or the entire subject’s content. We cannot pick and choose the whole will of God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
The new birth challenges men with a difference of how God expresses himself compared to the worlds view point. God says it in plain English Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: Isaiah 55:7 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways Isaiah 55:8. God’s thoughts are eternal whereas man thoughts are temporal. How do I establish common grounds to communicate with God to know why God compares his thoughts and ways to the wicked and unrighteous?
However we are in a world that suppresses the truth through its evil deeds and the wickedness of evil men is what we have become accustomed to. Being transformed by the renewing of your mind is being conformed to the pattern of God thoughts and the way he governs his life. The outcome of being conformed to God’s thoughts and ways is being able to test and approve the way God does things. Approval of God and his ways comes when you can agree with his reasoning and know his ways will have success.
Strange as it may seem the moral characters God finds detestable are the same characteristics you find despicable when you are faced with them. No one wants to be treated unfairly but when conformed to the world we treat others with disrespect and feel justified. However God says you have become one of them when you get even to justify yourself. Proving the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God provides a plan to guide your life into eternity for in knowing the will of God you prove you are worthy of eternal life when you comply by doing them.
Renewing your mind demands you take God’s word to heart and then put into practice; for in the long run God’s word changes you into a child of God and a person respected among his peers. In other words absorbing God’s word changes heart and the principles you conduct your life. 06/03/2015
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