The Zone Gathering

Acts 2:42- 47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

During Thursday Leadership Lesson, we have been talking about the 4 dimensions of discipleship: Seeking, Learning, Influencing, and Investing. Today, I want to focus on the Learner dimension.

Acts 2 said the disciples were “devoted to the apostle’s teaching.” This is the intellectual dimension of discipleship. True disciples are life-long students who love to learn. The more they learn about God, the more they love him. And the more they love him, the more they want to learn about him.

The word “disciple” means “learner,” but not just in the academic sense. In the Hebrew language, there is no disconnect between knowing and doing. Knowing is doing and doing is knowing. This is why Paul wrote that “faith without works is dead.” How we act is determined by what we think. Worldview (the way we think) and lifestyle (the way we live) are inextricably linked. We want to instill a love of Scripture and equip people to be students of the Word (II Timothy 2:15). We want people to love God with all their minds. The end goal is that we have the mind of Christ.

There are many ways to approach Scripture, including reading, meditation, study, and memorization. I think we need to explore all of these methods in order to have a balanced approach to the Word.

In reading, we approach the Word of God as a Story or a letter. We read large portions at one time in order to more clearly see the big picture and capture the power of the story that God is writing throughout history. It may mean reading entire books in one sitting or the entire New Testament in a week.

As we study, we look more carefully and closely at the details- understanding each word and phrase, comparing Scripture to Scripture, interpreting passages, etc. In studying, we strive to be like the Bereans whom Luke commends in Acts 17:11, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true.”

In meditation, we spend time letting the Word of God soak into our lives and we create space for the “Word of God to dwell in us richly” (Colossians 3:16). We become like the person the Psalmist describes, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” In order to fully grasp the truth of God, we need both reason (Biblical study) and revelation (Biblical meditation).

In memorization, the Word becomes an active and living part of our lives. I believe the more we memorize, the more we live according to its principles. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

The Journey of discipleship involves the adventure of Learning, and we should strive to learn as much as we can about God, his works, and his ways. Great leaders are great learners. If you would like to read more about this topic, check out the following books:

Psalm 119 (The Holy Bible)
God’s Word for the Biblically Inept (Larry Richards)
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Gordon Fee)
Discovering the Book God Wrote (Bill Bright)
Mere Christianity (C.S.Lewis)

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2005 at 8:40 am and is filed under Discipleship, Discipleship Map, Leadership Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.