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Welcome to Day 1454 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomBible Study - Getting it Right Through Action – Meditation MondayWisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1454 of our Trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy. For you, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. You may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life, Meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and in prayer. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and making sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you, too, will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind.
 
We are continuing our series this week on Meditation Monday as we focus on Mastering Bible Study through a series of brief insights from Hebrew Scholar, Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Our first few insights will focus on study habits to build a strong foundation. Today let us meditate on:
Bible Study – Getting it Right Through Action·      Insight Eleven: Bible Study Is Not Like MarriageEvery reader who is married knows that marriage is an adjustment. Although Paula and I have had very few issues in our marriage, the honeymoon phase does indeed end. Couples may love each other, but conflict eventually surfaces. One piece of sage advice for handling conflicts that I have read at various times is offered in the form of a question: Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be right? I suspect that you catch the meaning. Winning a debate and making your spouse happy aren’t interchangeable ideas.
While this advice works well for marital bliss, it doesn’t work for Bible study. When it comes to interpreting Scripture, you want to be right. Flawed analysis and poorly formed conclusions about what the Bible says aren’t going to produce Bible study bliss. In the long run of our spiritual lives, getting warm and fuzzy feelings from a misunderstood passage is far less desirable than grasping the text accurately without a wave of emotion sweeping over us.
The same can be said about having your own theological comfort zone as your goal for Bible study. If we believe the text is inspired, we need to be subservient to what it says, even when our efforts produce results that conflict with what we’ve been taught to believe. If we’re teaching others, our goal cannot be keeping people happy with what we discover are flawed beliefs and interpretations. Bible study is meaningless if we aren’t striving to understand God’s Word correctly.
So remember that you aren’t practicing marital diplomacy when you study Scripture. Think critically. Be tenacious. Demand clarity. Giving in isn’t going to make God happy. He wants you to wrestle with his Word and get it right.
·      Insight Twelve: “Study” is a VerbDr. Heiser shares that before he decided to go to graduate school, he spent some time in seminary. One of his professors was known for his memorable phrases. One of his off-the-cuff quips has stuck with Dr. Heiser for decades: “If you don’t think the ministry is hard work, you aren’t in it.” As with most professional careers, they are hard work. While I never went into the pastorate, this phrase rings through the corridors of my mind whenever I think about Bible study. It lends itself to a suitable...