Study Series
Essentials of the Christian Faith: The Word of God (Lesson 2 of 12)
“And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.” Ecclesiastes 12.12
On one particular occasion, when I was in deep prayer and worship to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I had gotten the sense that the Lord was speaking to my heart. What I believed the Lord to be asking me was that I was welcomed to make a request of Him. I had really thought hard about the offer. I knew, of course, it was not an offer given by God, as so many have sadly mistaken Him as being a genie in a bottle. I was not getting three wishes, nor was it an offer to request great riches or anything so frivolous and fleeting in nature. No, it was an offer made by my Jesus to bring me into a closer relationship with Him. I ended up asking the Lord to help me make the best request for myself from this offer from Him, knowing that it was going to change the very course of my walk in my relationship with the Triune God. It was at that time, that I was not able to think of anything that I desired or wanted more than to be able to hear the voice of God in my life; so as, to walk in a life that was pleasing and desirable to Him. It was no sooner that I experienced this overwhelming desire to please God and seek His will for my life that a thought so obvious, but that was too simple to come from myself, “Memorize My Word.”
Since that time, I began to make it part of my worship and service to God to memorize Scripture. As I started with verses and worked to chapters, I began to setout to memorize entire books of the Bible. The greatest thing that I have learned from depending upon the Holy Ghost in the process of memorizing God’s Word, is that it is always accompanied with a newfound understanding of the passage or verse or portion of the Word I had never considered before. Consequently, as the years went by, I began to develop a voracious appetite for theology. Admittedly, it took many years for me to even consider the pursuit of the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of Christian Theology. The reason was not so much that I was in fear of developing preconceived suppositions1 of the interpretation of Scripture, as taught by the only denominational faith2 I had been exposed to at that time in my life. No, the reason was that those moments I had with the Lord were so much cherished by me, and the Great Shepherd was leading me into new pastures. A significant event in my life and ministry during this time was about to unfold and change my understanding of God drastically. An event that will be more extensively covered in the “Authorship Series.” But for now, I want to explain to you a little different aspect of my journey with the Lord on this matter, I wanted to tell you, my beloved reader, how I fell in love with the Word of God and learned how to love His Bride.3
