{"id":738,"date":"2007-12-07T00:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-07T08:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=738"},"modified":"2010-03-06T00:45:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T08:45:26","slug":"dwelling-on-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2007\/12\/07\/dwelling-on-the-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwelling on the Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Pastor Patrick Cho<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow is your time in God\u2019s Word?\u201d This is a common question we ask one another in the church when we meet up for accountability or when we want to know how someone is doing spiritually. Typically, the answer to this question is, \u201cI\u2019m doing fine,\u201d or maybe more often, \u201cIt\u2019s been a struggle.\u201d Perhaps for many of us, the problem is that even when we are not doing ok, we do not know enough to recognize it. What do I mean by this?<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve known me long enough, you know that I never have liked the term \u201cquiet time\u201d when referring to your time spent in God\u2019s Word. You\u2019ll rarely, if ever, hear me ask, \u201cHave you been doing your quiet times?\u201d The reason is that when I think of \u201cquiet time,\u201d as Christians understand this term, I think of a check off box on a list of accountability questions. You read your Bible for ten minutes in the morning, check off your box, and then move on in the day. Now you can meet with your small group and tell them that your time in God\u2019s Word has been going well or that it has been \u201cconsistent.\u201d But this is not the approach to God\u2019s Word that God wants us to have.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the words of Deuteronomy 6:6-9:<\/p>\n<p>[6] &#8220;These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. [7] You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. [8] &#8220;You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. [9] &#8220;You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.<\/p>\n<p>Without going into the minute details of this passage, the general message is that God wants His law to be on His people\u2019s hearts. This is to be all day \u2013 morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Whether you\u2019re sitting in your house or walking along the way, you should be dwelling on His Word. It is the first thing on your mind when you get up in the morning and the last thing on your mind before you lay down to sleep. If I were to come to you at any point of the day and ask you what you read earlier from God\u2019s Word, it should be readily available on the forefront of your mind. How sad that this is not the experience of most in today\u2019s church.<\/p>\n<p>We think reading God\u2019s Word is all it takes \u2013 as if it was like a magic book that you just have to get some time in before the day is over. An apple a day keeps the doctor away? How about a verse a day keeps the devil away? The Bible doesn\u2019t work that way. When we allow Scripture to dwell in our minds, we allow the Spirit to teach us specifically. What does God want me to learn from this passage today? How is it particularly applicable to me? The problem is that we don\u2019t dwell on God\u2019s Word. We just read it and wait for it to work its magic. It\u2019s no wonder so many Christians find their times in the Word dry and unfulfilling.<\/p>\n<p>This is what meditation on God\u2019s Word is all about. It\u2019s emptying your mind of all the distracting thoughts of the day and then filling it with thoughts of God \u2013 His character, His works, His ways, and His will. Spending time in God\u2019s Word is more than a duty to be checked off a list. It is supposed to be an encounter with the God of the universe! It sounds so much like sixth grade Sunday school, but maybe it\u2019s just that we\u2019ve forgotten that we are in constant conversation with the Lord. We speak to Him in prayer and He answers us through His Word. He\u2019s given us His Spirit who works in our hearts, but His Spirit works particularly through His Word. We need to get back to the discipline of meditation \u2013 to dwell on God and His principles from Scripture so that we can have a more confident trust in His presence and His work in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>When was the last time you were able to say, \u201cI met with God and He taught me through His Word today\u201d? So often instead we say something like, \u201cI read something interesting,\u201d or \u201cI made some wonderful observations today.\u201d While reading God\u2019s Word is invaluable and making good observations is essential, it is critical that we take time to dwell on what we read and observe to understand how it instructs, guides, and challenges us, and how it applies to us.<\/p>\n<p>Are you feeling dry in your walk with God? Perhaps one reason is that although you have been spending time in God\u2019s Word, you have not allowed Him to really teach you what He wants you to learn. One practical way you can cultivate this is by keeping a journal about what you read. Don\u2019t just summarize the passage. Jot down more specifically how the passage applies to you and what you learned from it. This will force you to think about the passage you read because you\u2019ll want to write something worth writing. I hope that you will remember that we seek not only the Word but the God of the Word. Pursue Christ by meditating on His Word day and night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Pastor Patrick Cho \u201cHow is your time in God\u2019s Word?\u201d This is a common question we ask one another in the church when we meet up for accountability or when we want to know how someone is doing spiritually. Typically, the answer to this question is, \u201cI\u2019m doing fine,\u201d or maybe more often, \u201cIt\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors-corner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1351,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}