Pleasure & Profit in Bible StudyMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
Pleasure & Profit in Bible Study
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Bible -- Study and teaching
Word and Work make healthy Christians. If it be all Word and no work,
people will suffer from what I may call religious gout. On the other
hand if it be all work and no Word, it will not be long before they will
fall into all kinds of sin and error; so that they will do more harm
than good. But if we first study the Word and then go to work, we shall
be healthy, useful Christians. I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who
was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray
and ask God to use him in His work; but God cannot make use of him, for
there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon. We must have the Word
itself, which is sharper than any two-edged sword.
We have a great many prayer meetings, but there is something just as
important as prayer, and that is that we read our Bibles, that we have
Bible study and Bible lectures and Bible classes, so that we may get
hold of the Word of God. When I pray, I talk to God, but when I read the
Bible, God is talking to me; and it is really more important that God
should speak to me than that I should speak to Him I believe we should
know better how to pray if we knew our Bibles better. What is an army
good for if they don't know how to use their weapons? What is a young
man starting out in the Christian work good for it he does not know how
to use his Bible? A man isn't worth much in battle if he has any doubt
about his weapon, and I have never found a man who has doubts about the
Bible who has amounted to much in Christian work. I have seen work after
work wrecked because men lost confidence in the spirit of this Old Book.
YOUNG CONVERTS.
If young converts want to be used of God, they must feed on His Word.
Their experience may be very good and very profitable at the outset, and
they may help others by telling it; but if they keep on doing nothing
else but telling their experience, it will soon become stale and
unprofitable, and people will weary of hearing the same thing over and
over again. But when they have told how they have been converted, the
next thing is to feed on the Word. We are not fountains ourselves; but
the Word of God is the true fountain.
And if we feed on the Word, it will be so easy then to speak to others;
and not only that, but we shall be growing in grace all the while, and
others will take notice of our walk and conversation. So few grow,
because so few study. I would advise all young converts to keep as much
as they can in the company of more experienced Christians. I like to
keep in the society of those who know more than I do; and I never lose a
chance of getting all the good I can out of them. Study the Bible
carefully and prayerfully; ask of others what this passage means and
what that passage means, and when you have become practically acquainted
with the great truths it contains, you will have less to fear from the
world, the flesh, and the devil. You will not be disappointed in your
Christian life.
SOMETHING NEW.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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