Last Spring in our family room in our house in Carmel, I sat
with the other elders and the ministers of Southeastern church of Christ. We decided we’d write these articles to share
our personal approach to being devoted to God in love, which is the first part
of our Vision
Statement[1].
This past Fall the same group met at Frank Black’s house and
we decided we need to meet with people and ask them how they can help us
accomplish the Vision Statement.
So about 3 weeks ago I met at Panera Bread with a young man
from our church to get to know him better and to ask him how he can help us
accomplish the Vision. He wanted to be
trained better on the Word of God. He
said, “I don’t think I can evangelize effectively without knowing the Bible
better. What if I run into an atheist
and they know the Bible better than me. I’d like to know the Bible as well as I know
what I am studying at college. I’m going
to know that material authoritatively. I’ll be an expert.” Our meeting for coffee ended up being a 3 hour
visit. It was great.
So we talked about the best way to go about that. He decided that he should read the Bible cover
to cover this year, and he wanted to do it with someone. I volunteered. So I now have the pleasure of being committed
to reading a portion of the Bible each week: 7 days worth out of a daily study
Bible. And I have the pleasure of
getting to know him better. We meet up
each Saturday at 10am. I haven’t read
the Bible cover to cover in about 10 years.
So far we are 2 for 2. That is, we have met both of the first two
Saturdays so far this year. We hope to
keep it going all year and finish a complete read through the Bible in 2013.
The first week we ended up meeting for over 2 hours. We got it down to 1 ½ hours today. We are trying to get it down to a one hour
study each week to review what we’ve read in the Bible, because we don’t want
to take so long that we avoid meeting up on Saturdays.
It’s been great because we are both competitive guys and we
don’t want to fail to accomplish our reading each week. And it’s been great because we learn from each
other. Like Proverbs says, “One man
sharpens another like iron sharpens iron.” He’s reading scripture he hasn’t ever read. I’m remembering facts and concepts that I’d
forgotten.
What are your plans for helping us, or you individually,
accomplish our vision? Think about it,
pray about it, write it down, and take action.
This young man I am studying with is thoughtful, sincere, and is willing
to dedicate himself to do what he thinks is necessary to help him be the
Christian he wants to be. I encourage
you to do the same.
[1]
Our Vision Statement: Devoted to God in love, Trained by Christ for life, Led
by the Spirit to serve.
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