Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
ACTS 17:11
Why is Luke so enthusiastic about the Berean believers? Apparently they delighted not only in the hearing of God’s Word as it was preached, but along with that developed a habit of consistently being in the Word on their own.
We can never take the Word of God for granted. Amos 8:11 reveals that a desire to hear it or be in it can be removed in an instant if God so willed.
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”
May that never be the case for us at Grace EV Free!
Why is our time in God’s Word so important for us as a community? Consider these thoughts from David Wells:
Without this transcendent Word in its life, the church has no rudder, no compass, no provisions.
Without the Word, it has no capacity to stand outside its culture, to detect and wrench itself free from the seductions of modernity.
Without the Word, the church has no meaning. It may seek substitutes for meaning in committee work, relief work, and various other church activities, but such things cannot fill the role for very long.
Cut off from the meaning that God has given, faith cannot offer anything more by way of light in our dark world than what is offered by philosophy, psychology, or sociology.
Cut off from God’s meaning, the church is cut off from God; it loses its identity as the people of God in belief, in practice, in hope.
Cut off from God’s word, the church is on its own, left to live for itself, by itself, upon itself. It is never lifted beyond itself, above its culture. It is never stretched or tried. It grows more comfortable, but it is the comfort of anaesthesia, of a refusal to pay attention to the disturbing realities of God’s truth.
GOD IN THE WASTELAND David E. Wells (page 150)
If you don’t have a regular time in the Scriptures already, today is the day to begin. Why not join the Grace New Testament reading schedule? It just started. A chapter a day, five days a week. We can enjoy it together, and talk about it together, and be shaped together as a community of believers.
Take Up Your Sword: New Testament Reading Plan
This coming Sunday is a reading service, as the story of God’s redemption has some serious bumps along the way. Come ready, like the Bereans, to receive the Word with great eagerness.