September 13, 2012 ~ Meditating on God's Word

I meditate on your precepts
    and consider your ways.

Psalm 119:15

Thoughts~

I’ve wanted to attend a Precepts Bible Study for several years and finally found one at another church. Tonight I was fed God’s word from Jude and am far from full. Oh happy day! What a joy and a delight to have found this brand new group. Perhaps one day in the distant future I will be able to lead a group like this. But for now, I am the student and am learning how to dissect a verse word by word and meaning by meaning and understand what God is teaching me completely.

You might wonder how I had time for this in my already crazy fall schedule but I had to fit it in. And because I am an empty nester and an empty husbander (is that even a word?) I have more free time than many people. Okay, let’s face it: I made time. It was something I was starving for. When we want something this much we find the time.

Jude is a one chapter book right before Revelation and it deals with ungodly people who are causing disruption and are attacking Christians. Hello? Was this written yesterday and not centuries ago? This is so applicable to our lives today. My teacher, Nancy Jo, is patient with us newbies and we fly through the work but I would die of boredom if it was too slow.

Tonight we made note of every time Jude was mentioned by name or pronoun and then the believers were noted.  What shocked the socks off my feet (teasing: no socks, it’s still hot here in Phoenix) was the extremely long list of the ungodly. WOW! We think it’s the world today that contains so many ungodly people but it was the same back in 70 AD. They were crawling out of the woodwork back then too.

I’ve only done one Precept Study a decade ago and loved the way of learning God’s word then. After that I bought little books to do on my own but I found I need to be accountable to at least one person if not a group, so they are kind of unused, sitting on my bookshelf. Waiting for me to someday open them up again.

I read Jude about 4 or 5 times before this class began and wondered how I WOULD BE CHALLENGED. Let me tell you that I was! It will be an exciting fall for me. I am so grateful.

A precept is a word we don’t use today but it means teaching, principle, rule, law and instruction. Precepts style teaching shows us how to dig deep to know and build on God’s word. Plus, it shows us how God’s word does not contradict itself. AND we use colored pencils which delights the artist in me.

Action~

If you are starving, like I was, for a really sound Bible Study, find one. Don’t wait . . . do it today. Precept Ministries International may be in your area. And if there is no Precepts Study, you could look around for another type of study like Bible Study Fellowship. Both are excellent and encourage deep Bible Study.

Pray~

Lord, thank you for Your word and the power it has for all who believe in You. I will meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

Trusting in Him,

Becky

Precept Ministries International http://precept.org/

Bible Student Fellowship International http://www.bsfinternational.org/