The Bible - Thursday
Today’s Verse
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (ESV)
In an old ore mining area in the southwest corner of Missouri is a small Bible college where I spent four years of my late teens and early twenties. It presented like an extension of a church camp but quickly revealed itself to be a grueling training center for ministry and theology. We had 7am classes to attend, dense books to read, ancient languages to study, entire chapters of the Bible to memorize, and long papers to write. The accommodations were even less compelling: dorm rooms without air conditioning, cinder block walls, shared restrooms, and food prepared for a frugal institution. My school was more of a military basic training center than a modern college campus.
I thought I was going to kick back, have fun, meet new people, hear a few lessons about Jesus, and then graduate with a degree. Surely, I would be ready to take some kids to camps like I had attended, throw in an occasional trip to a theme park, cheer students on at their ball games, and inspire them with devotions similar to those I had experienced when I was in youth group. I did kind of eventually get to do a version of that but not before I wanted to quit. Not before I broke. Not before I (almost) failed some classes and came to grips with what an immature knucklehead I was. In the midst of the struggles, I didn’t realize it, but the training I received in that Spartan setting would ground me in reality and prepare me for decades of local church ministry.
When Paul wrote his protege Timothy and said the words, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” he illuminated a crucial truth about the Bible. The Bible is living, active, and useful for life. It’s every bit as relevant today as the day it was recorded. The place I trained and prepared for local church ministry took Paul at his word. We spent time taking the Bible exactly as it claimed to be, “breathed out by God,” and we prepared to teach ourselves and others to submit our lives to its claims and Truth. We positioned ourselves under the text, not outside it, above it, alongside it, or detached from it. We positioned ourselves under its authority so that our lives would be shaped and molded by its expectations and demands.
Aside from my salvation and my marriage, I have had no greater blessing in life than to be trained in the rigorous study of God’s Word. If you have never studied the Bible on your own, I encourage you to do it. Do it every day. Pull it out, get in a quiet place, grab a highlighter, read it, think about it, and then apply it to your life. The benefits are limitless, and tomorrow we will talk about a few of those benefits from the text we are studying this week.
APPLICATION
Commit to reading Southland’s daily devotion and one chapter from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John every day for the next 30 days.
PRAYER
God, thank you for your Word. Today, I place myself under your careful instruction. Guide my steps and lead me far away from temptation.
