Studying Through the Bible

I was asked a thoughtful question today about the Calvary Chapel style of teaching through the Bible verse by verse:  what happens after you teach through the entire Bible?  Do you just cycle through the same notes?  While I cannot speak for other churches or pastoral approaches to teaching, I can speak to the unfathomable wisdom of the revelation of God's word.  One could more easily bottle all the water of the oceans of the world before we could process or exhaust God's wisdom held forth in the Bible.  Because Scripture is God-inspired, living and active, there is much more to learn than we can possibly receive in a single pass or a thousand studies of the same passage.  This is one reason my practice is to study a passage from scratch every time:  God and the passage hasn't changed, but I do.

By the grace of God, faith in God and obedience to His word results in increased maturity.  Our experiences, feelings, and circumstances impact our perspective and outlook.  Thus the Bible and God's truth will impact us differently depending on our current frame of mind and what God has already been speaking to us about.  The timeless truths remain in full force, but what seems most relevant to us at the time can change depending on how we are feeling and what we are thinking.  The Holy Spirit is able to go beyond the words of the page as well, leading us to consider how other passages connect in new and unexpected ways that provide additional richness and depth of personal application.

Another aspect of teaching through the Bible is even if a text is repeated the congregation and hearers will also be a different group of people.  They too will be in various stages of spiritual growth and maturity.  God is able to help those preaching tailor a fresh message by His leading that takes into account things we cannot know, like an unbeliever who will be visiting or new believers in the congregation.  Even in the midst of teaching the Holy Spirit can prompt a new line of reasoning not written down to dovetail into the message that ministers to the minister and people alike.  The picture of Hebrews gathering manna to be eaten that day is a picture of the daily gathering of our daily bread with humility due to our need.  There is also a season to eat of the old store, and this suggests God's Word is no less nourishing when a sermon is shared that has been preached before.

As useful as commentaries and study materials can be, there is no substitute with digging into God's Word afresh ourselves to seek what God has to say to us or our congregation through us today.  The scene with Boaz who commanded handfuls of grain be conspicuously left for Ruth is a beautiful picture of how God supplies our needs with wisdom, illustrations, promises, instruction, rebuke and personal application:  all we must do is rise in faith and gather them up.  Even a short devotional talk with children can yield more leftovers than the bread and fish that remained after Jesus fed 5,000 men plus their families with the lunch of one lad.  Praise the LORD He supplies our need for spiritual nutrition that brings health, growth and transformation by His grace.  God and His Word never change, but He is faithful to change us by familiar and obscure passages alike.