Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – 2 Kings 11-15
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 4:24-25
Jesus: So consider carefully the things you’re hearing. If you put it to use, you’ll be given more to wrestle with—much more. Those who have listened will receive more, but those who don’t hear will forget even the little they’ve failed to understand.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I always enjoyed science and math in high school and so made chemistry my major in college. I admit, by the time I finished college, I wasn’t so enamored with chemistry anymore and knew I didn’t want to be a chemist the rest of my life, but during those school years, I really did enjoy the classes. I enjoyed learning about the fundamentals of how atoms and molecules were put together and why one compound interacted with another to make something entirely different. I enjoyed learning about the different orbitals electrons occupy and how you could manipulate those electrons to do some incredible things with a variety of substances by adding or subtracting energy or by using some other catalyst to nudge those electrons toward another element’s orbital structure to make those atomic bonds do what you want them to do.
Each year, as I progressed further into the science, I learned more about the intricacies of how elements and molecules and energy worked together to create new compounds that can be either useful to us or detrimental to us. Each year the science built on the year before. I could never have understood pharmaceutical chemistry if I hadn’t taken and understood organic chemistry first. After getting into pharmaceutical chemistry, I understood why all the prerequisites were necessary. I needed everyone of them to understand what was going on when you introduced a chemical into the bloodstream and how it might affect the blood/brain barrier, the cell walls, how it attached to some particular receptacle in the body and so forth. Every time I learned some new piece of knowledge, two or three more pieces of knowledge became available, but not before.
The same thing happens in math if you think about it. Before you can multiple, you need to know how to add. Before you can do algebra, you need to have multiplication mastered. Before you tackle calculus, algebra, trigonometry, and geometry should be in your repertoire. And as you begin to master each of those skills, new horizons of learning open up for you so that you can solve problems with ever increasing difficulty that as a grade schooler learning to add, you would never have a clue how to begin to solve if your life depended on it.
That’s the way it is with spiritual things. Too many times, people think they should be able to open the Bible and know all the answers about life by reading the book. It doesn’t work that way. We forget that regardless of our physical age, when we are born again, by the Spirit of God, we are spiritual infants. We know just enough about spiritual things to have our sins forgiven and begin to follow God’s leading.
As we continue to read His word, pray about it, follow the teaching He gives us, we begin to learn more each day. We figure out what it really means to let Jesus be Lord of our life. But we can’t learn that until after we’ve had our sins forgiven and committed ourselves to Him. Only then do we begin to gain the additional knowledge about His guidance and leadership in our life, because until then, it’s like that second grader reading a calculus book.
By the same token, God doesn’t expect us to stay infants or toddlers or first graders forever. He expects us to learn and grow in Him. He expects us to read and study His word. He expects us to ask Him about it. He wants to teach us and guide us through life. But until we decide we will expend some effort and learn from Him, we will stay stuck in first grade, content with just knowing how to add and nothing else. We will miss so much of what He has available for us.
We live in a society that really doesn’t think much about learning when you consider that most Americans read less than one book a year after graduating from high school. By our behavior, we demonstrate we don’t have much desire to learn more. I cringe when I compare the literacy skills of a Civil War private with those of our college graduates. The privates 150 years ago conveyed their thoughts much more articulately than our graduates today.
That means we must break the mold to study God’s word. We must be different from the crowd in two distinct ways if we expect to learn about spiritual things. First, we must actually be willing to study. That in itself is a rarity in today’s society, but a necessity if we are to learn what God wants. Second, we must let God into our life as Savior and Lord. Until we give Him mastery of our life, we will only see the words in His book with as much understanding as that first grader trying to read.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.