The Delight of Searching the Scriptures

Mark Dunagan
12/08/13 - Sunday Evening

The Delight of Searching the Scriptures

Think about it. The Cause of every created thing you've ever seen, heard, tasted and touched has put into writing all that He wants you to know for your own well-being and His glory. Amazing! Is there a more precious gift? Is there anything more worthy of your undivided attention? No wonder “Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10) , and no wonder Paul told his child in the faith, Timothy, to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). In deed if you “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser” (Proverbs 9:9).

There are varied approaches to choose from as we decide just how we will take in this manna from above. And with as much has been written about teaching and the learning process, how interesting that today study after study or discovery only seems to reinforce the methods the Bible had directed thousands of years ago.

One-on-One

The best learning takes place in a face-to-face setting, as with someone like a tutor.  There is no substitute for that human interaction and even in today’s advanced world of learning via audio or video, such methods are a very distant second place to one-on-one learning.  Such was the method of communication when Paul told Timothy, “... the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2).

Addicted to the Process

Various phrases are used to describe what happens when learning really takes off.  Some say it is when the student experiences the thrill or pleasure that discovery brings, when he or she becomes "addicted to the process" of learning new and amazing things.  When the student has become “hooked” or “captivated” and they have a hunger for more information.  David Brooks describes the jolt of pleasure that comes when one has worked hard, suffered a bit, and then something wonderfully clicked.  This is often when the learner takes charge of his or her own education, becoming a self-teacher for the rest of their lives.  Jesus spoke of people being hungry for righteousness (Matthew 5:6). Let's determine to "keep our appetite up" to listen to God's word every day. The Bible describes this attitude as “having a love for the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and "longing for the pure milk of the word" (1 Peter 2:2) and you know you're hungry for truth when no one has to tell you to have your Bible open daily, searching the Scriptures to prove all things.  One of the most amazing things about the human heart or mind is that, unlike a computer that can be filled to capacity with limited information, the human mind is not only hungry and alive, it can store as much truth as we are willing to download. And while a computer often will slow down when it is filled with data, a healthy human mind actually becomes faster the more information it retains. 

For the Teacher

As teachers we must remember that the student may actually forget 90% of what was taught in a particular class, for depending upon their age and what is happening in their lives we may only have a small portion of their attention.  That is one good reason why the goal is to help the student become his or her own teacher, to take charge of his or her own learning, and to develop an appetite for Scripture.  This is one reason why in every lesson a practical application to what is happening in their lives is so essential.  That they can clearly see that Moses, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel or Timothy successfully faced the same type of challenges they are facing.  Or that what motivated the Israelites to rebel rather than trust God, is exactly what is motivating their contemporaries to ignore God today.  The people I am reading about in the Bible are very relatable and spiritually are just like you and I!  (James 5:16). 

Read it Again and Again

There have been times that I have heard people complain about studying a certain topic or book of the Bible again.  Their naive attitude is that they learned everything that could be learned the last time.  There are certain goals accomplished or things that happen when one is repeatedly searching the Scriptures:

• Remember when you first learned to drive?  You had to think about every single move, you could not think about anything else and it was mentally exhausting.  Yet now you think about all sorts of things while driving. Familiarizing oneself with God's word daily, causes it to reside readily in the more automatic parts of your mind.  This will actually free up your conscious mind to work on new things. 
• You will start seeing formations.  People who remember many Bible verses are not people with a better memory, rather they are people who have read the Bible many times and can now see the material as a whole.  Instead of knowing a verse here and a verse there, they see in their mind, sets of passages throughout scripture that each add an element to the same topic. 
• As you enter into any field of learning, the field of learning enters you.  Thus the word of God is liked to a perennial seed that over time spreads and flourishes in receptive soil (Luke 8:15).

Think the Right Thing about Yourself

Often the learning process is short-circuited because we have allowed ourselves to believe the wrong message.  It is tempting to think at times, “I can never learn this” or “I am just not very intelligent” or “I could never memorize or remember….”.

Guard yourself from all deceptions with regard to learning:

• “If we initially find a subject difficult—then it would be fruitless for us to continue to try to master it”.
• “Smart people get it the first time they hear it”.
• “Homework is easy for smart people”.
• “If learning isn’t fun then we are learning the wrong thing or learning it in the wrong way”.
• “A good teacher will make learning effortless”.  Good teachers can definitely add creativity and some fun to learning, but often good teachers set their students in motion and are quite willing to be disliked awhile as a result of setting the bar high or assigning challenging homework.

It has been noted that people who view themselves as above average in intelligence (or are continually told that they are “smart”) often tend to stay away from taking risks or tackling more challenging things, lest they fail from that reputation.  While students who are praised for being a “hard-worker” and view themselves as diligent actually do much better.  When it comes to learning anything and especially learning the Scriptures I find the following attitudes important:

Healthy Attitudes for Learning

• “While I am not smarter than everyone else, still, with effort on my part, I can understand this topic”:  Romans 12:3
• “The Bible was written to all of us, therefore, with effort I, as well as others, can understand what the Bible says”:  Ephesians 5:17
• “Seeing that the Bible is profitable for so many things (2 Timothy 3:16-17), reading it again can only result in something good”.

Practical Things to Do When Studying

This not only applies to Bible Study but to the study of anything as well:

• Keep reading.  Studies have shown that people who are successful in life use their free time to read and do a myriad of other things that would somehow improve themselves either physically, intellectually, emotionally or socially.  People who are not successful tend to watch a lot of television or play video games in their free time.  Have you found, as I have, the following to be true time and time again?  People I know who have advanced in their careers—are very knowledgeable not only in their own field of expertise, but in a surprisingly wide array topics.  They read a lot, not just because they have learned to love reading, but because they realize that being good at what they do demands knowing more than just one thing.  That actually many fields of knowledge interrelate with any career field. And certainly, scripture interrelates to it all.
• Write down your thoughts and questions as you read.  A specific line of thought, unless immediately written down, may be lost, except perhaps for bits and pieces of much less quality than the first time it surfaced.  Someone has well noted that before you begin writing a sermon or a paper you should be 75% finished with the idea in your notes.
• Both sleep and taking a break are quite important parts of retaining what we've learned. And although scientists are still trying to discover everything that sleep accomplishes, many believe sleep is the period in which the brain consolidates memories and organizes things that were learned during the day.  Research suggests that sleep improves the memory by 15 percent, and people who slept for eight hours between work sessions dealing with math problems were twice as likely to solve the problems as those who worked straight through.
• Hitting a wall when writing a paper or putting together an invitation, class material or  sermon? Do not let the data overwhelm you.  Keep on pushing yourself, for writing, and organizing and studying is hard work (2 Timothy 2:15) and though it can be frustrating in the initial stages, you will find that after ranging your notes that a “slow hunch” will often develop in the direction you should take.  Then there is often a blast of insight when you really start writing, sometimes as if the lesson is writing itself.  You will use wisely that good experience if you let it motivate you to write another lesson for the good of the souls around you.

Mark Dunagan  |  mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ  |  503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net