A Summer Challenge

In the midst of a summer filled with may books – books about people, books about church, books about the Bible – and audio sermons galore, a statement like the following by Spurgeon can cut to the quick, quick:

It is well to meditate upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. A man who hears many sermons, is not necessarily well-instructed in the faith. We may read so many religious books, that we overload our brains, and they may be unable to work under the weight of the great mass of paper and of printer’s ink. The man who reads but one book, and that book his Bible, and then meditates much upon it, will be a better scholar in Christ’s school than he who merely reads hundreds of books, and meditates not at all.

I know not nor care not about being a scholar, however I do desire to redeem the time that God has given and make sure that I put my time to the best use possible. In that spirit, I have recently revisited an article from a few years back and pray that God will use it in my life (and hopefully in yours) to bring about many blessings and much growth.

The article, written by Andrew Davis, can be found here, and it describes a simple system for scripture memory. For those who are not actively involved in scripture memory, please consider employing this spiritual discipline and see how the richness of the Bible will fuel you, inspire you, and comfort you as you go through your day!

As we memorize, we meditate, and as we meditate, we pray, and as we pray, we invite God into every aspect of our lives and experience His power, as described towards the end of the same sermon by Spurgeon:

We can meditate better after we have addicted ourselves to a meditative frame. When we have mused a little, then the fire begins to burn; and you will perceive, that as the fire burns, meditation gets easier, and then the heart gets warm; and oh! what holy affections, what blessed excitements those have who are much alone with Christ! (you can read the rest of Spurgeon’s sermon here)

I pray that we would not wast these summer days – that we would spend many of our leisure hours reading and contemplating and learning and meditating on God’s word – so that our heart might glow like a white-hot coal for the glory and work of God!

Another instance of quality over quantity

A great thought quoted by Tim Challies on his blog Challies.com:

Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that make them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee’s touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian.

-from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks

Here’s the permalink to Tim’s post.

Do you own your Bible?

It’s taken a while for me to get this link up, but here is an interesting post on Challies.com from Mortimer Adler’s book How to Read a Book. I read this book last summer after hearing John Piper list it as one of the books that has had the greatest impact on his life, and I highly recommend it to the compulsive reader and the occasional skimmer alike!

Check out Tim’s post here: Beef and Beefsteaks

Do you own your Bible?