Skip to main content

For the Busy Student: Two Important Things


Dear Sam,

Your friend told me of the visit you had together. He said that you were very busy with classes and in getting involved with your job. I know he appreciated it, but was concerned as I am that it might take time away from two very important things—private time with God reading in the Scriptures, and fellowship with other believers. This fellowship includes such things as private one-on-one fellowship with another Christian, and certainly a good church.

If you have not read the New Testament, I really encourage you to read it through, covering about 3 to 4 chapters a day. By reading 4 chapters a day you will finish the New Testament in two months; two chapters a day—a little over four months. But the months go by anyhow, and you might as well have read it all. Your faith will increase. Your anxiety will lessen. It will be very good for you.

If you have read the New Testament through already this year, I encourage you to do something like this: take one of the books, preferably one of the short books like 1 John, which has five chapters, or 1 Peter, which has five, or James, and just read the book through every day for a week. You will get so much out of it the first time you read it, then more the second time because it will reinforce what you read the day before, and you will see some additional truths. This is a very good way to study. Read and reread right in order, and you will begin to grasp and understand the meaning, and the teaching of the book will become part of you—not just in your head, but really part of your life. So when it comes to decisions or actions you make, they will be biblical ones; they will be right ones.

In addition to this study, here is a plan for reading the whole Bible through in the course of the schoolyear. It starts today.

God has looked after you so far, and I know that He will continue to do so.

In Christ’s Love,

Jim Wilson

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today.     A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg.    Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it.    Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...
7 comments
Read more

Joy

Here are five biblical passages on joy: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22). “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you” (Psalms 51:12-13). “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have give...
Post a Comment
Read more