I often do that on Monday evenings. Don & Robin have opened their home for "Holy Spirit Christian Camaraderie" almost every week for, if I remember correctly, about 3 years. Don leads a time of worship and prayer and then we go on to conversation, some Bible study... and we pray for one another. It's good, it's free, and Don & Robin have never minded that I rarely stay for more than an hour.
These times at their home are one of the many reasons that we at Crossroads are blessed by having Don & Robin in our midst. If you can ever find the time to come on a Monday, I believe you will be glad you did.
As I was there last night I mentioned that I'm planning on moving on to the second chapter of The Dangerous Kind for this coming Sunday's message topic. Someone asked how I can do that considering that last Sunday I barely touched on the teachings from the first chapter.*
She's right! There is a lot more to Chapter 1 than the simple wake up call that I was led to bring out on January 4. But not everything can be said in 20 minutes. I just took a couple ideas from it and expanded them for our community. That's why I am encouraging people to get the book and read it! If you can't afford it, let me know and I'll provide one for whatever you can give.
When you get this book, you'll see that it's not an easy read. The author of A Dangerous Kind is an extremely intelligent man, a scholar as well as a pastor and spiritual teacher. He has studied the scriptures and theology and has been teaching and preaching for many years. He writes powerfully, but he does use an advanced vocabulary. You might need to read slowly with a dictionary, or, if you want, you can just let what you don't understand go right over your head.
But the Lord does encourage us to make an effort. God desires that we study and learn, challenging ourselves to grow more and more into the fulness of God's truth--truth that is sometimes difficult to understand. Since God knows more than we do, we should always expect to be challenged as we learn.
We live in a time when many Christian believers love to be entertained and end up rejecting any teaching that's not simple. Some even believe that "simplicity" is a sign of godliness. While there's no point being complicated just for the sake of showing off our education, putting too much emphasis on "simplicity" leaves us open to following entertainers and storytellers. Author Graeme Sellers spoke about this as he was teaching at The Master's Institute in 2009:
I find that people would like to take a "Holy Spirit shortcut" to knowing God and his ways. I find they want a shortcut to the development of their character and the changing of their hearts and minds to be like Jesus. I find that many people would like to attend a worship service and have God zap them and take care of it all that way and then leave completely ready to do the work of God.
That's why we bop around like pin-balls going from meeting to meeting and conference to conference, hoping to get a Holy Spirit blessing or impartation from the person who is conducting the meeting so we'll be able to do the things that they're doing. But what we don't see is that while we want what they want we're not willing to do what they did. Most of the people who have a legitimate anointing from God and an impartation to give, that comes from God, have that anointing and impartation as a result of years and years and hours and hours and hours in the Word of God.
The Bible says it is the Word of God that will equip you for every good work. If you want to be doing the works of God, you must be in the Word of God, willing to study and learn. That's where you'll find your ability to do what God desires you to do.
At Don & Robin's last night I was honored as one of those who gathered there said that he had listened* to my message from Sunday morning more than once since I shared it. He also gave me Sunday morning's bulletin insert with with verses that he had read carefully and highlighted. That's an example of study.How do you study? How do you learn? Are you willing to challenge yourself? Take time away from entertainment and study the Word of God.
Click here to download and read the Bible verses that are in chapters 1 & 2 of A Dangerous Kind. Spend some time studying. Look them up in your Bible along with the paragraphs before and after, and with whatever other study aids you can find. Write some notes. Share what you've learned with a friend. (I find that I learn best when I take what I've learned and put it in words, either speaking or writing.)
I’d be thrilled to help you find some study resources that work for you, so you can study and learn the sweet Word of God.
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*At [this link] you can find a place to download the first chapter of A Dangerous Kind and see what we did with the topic on Jan. 4. You can find a link to my recorded message there too.
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