Bethany Baptist Church exists to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and preparing His people to worship Him forever.
Broadcaster Spiritual Obstacles to Applying God’s Word to My Life The Bible is unique in that it is the only book that reads us as we read it. The other evening my wife Kimberly and I found ourselves in a conflict with each other. In this conflict, I sincerely felt that if Kimberly could see her error, acknowledge it and pursue a different path, we would be at peace. Remarkably, she felt the same about me!!! In our conflict, the goal of each of our contributions to the conversation was to convince the other of their need to change. As you might expect, this strategy did not lead to anywhere helpful. I went to bed that night feeling pretty righteous and a bit superior since I felt that I could see the circumstance of our disagreement very plainly, while Kimberly was continuing to miss it. I thought, “If only she could see what I see!” But after the fruitless conversation, I felt at a loss as to how to “help” her. The next morning as I meditated upon God’s Word, the Holy Spirit drove home to my heart the truth that if I had simply applied the Gospel to my own heart, our
argument would never have taken place. The problem would never have become a problem had I allowed Scripture to have its right work in me. God enabled me to see so clearly that my sin—my failure to apply His Word—was the root cause of our uncomfortable conversation. I marveled at myself, “Why did I not see this last night? Why was I so resistant to applying God’s Word just 10 hours earlier?” God reminded me that the hardest step in Bible study is the step of application. Yet application is the most essential step. The very purpose of our Bible reading and study rests on this one goal. The LORD’s words to Joshua echo in my heart, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8 ESV) Dr. Howard Hendricks taught the class I took in seminary on Bible study methods. Two statements he Continued on page 2.
Dr. Ritch Boerckel
Senior Pastor 3
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