Why the Word?
If you have ever found yourself in a dark room, or even in a dimly lit spot, you know well what happens when light enters. It not only reveals the truth, but it also guides and directs us out of darkness. This is the Word of God. It is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path.
If we do not open His Word, there is no light and we cannot see. We don’t have direction, and what follows is very sad: we become quite lost.
“Just as a bookmark draws us back to the spot where we are reading, and marks the course, the study of God’s word is to leave its own mark on our own lives.”
God desires to instruct us in His ways.
God desires to spend time with us.
He desires to speak to us, and He loves us.
We desire to be women who approach God’s Word with hunger, humility, reverence, and awe, remembering that this is the Word of God. This is not just another novel or history book. God’s Word is living, active and sharp. This is our sword of truth.
We desire to remember that what it says is not simply about us, but about our God—His character and His love. It is His story FOR us, and the more time we spend with Him in his Word, the more we know Him and can grasp how deep and how wide His love is for us.
We desire to present ourselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth.
We desire to feast on God’s Word so that it can feast on us. Allowing it to teach, reproof, correct, and train us up in righteousness, so that we may be complete and equipped for every good work that the Lord asks of us.
So, why do we need to study God’s Word with others?
God’s Spirit-filled Word is a lifeline to each believer. Biblical truth hits us differently when we look each other in the eyes and share what we learn. We need each other—we need the entire body—to challenge one another and encourage one another to be faithful. When we study together, we unify and build each other up in the faith. When we are all looking at the same truth, each heart is knit together in one common goal: to know and obey God.
God’s Word teaches us to, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bear with one another in love, and be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. A bond of peace, can you imagine that? The accountability of studying the Bible with each other gives us this peace, unity, and the strength we need to fight the spiritual battles we face. We know that when one part of the body is weak, the whole body feels the effect. Likewise, when one part of the body is strong, the whole body feels the strength. This battle we are fighting is fierce. We need to be strong. So, let’s not give up meeting together as a church and let’s make every effort to study God’s Word together.
This, my sisters, is unity. Studying God’s Word together should excite us, encourage us, and be a high priority in the growing of our faith together.
Why do we need to study God’s Word with others at CrossWay?
The benefit we receive when we study God’s Word together as CrossWay Women, is that everything listed above: all the love, all the peace, all the unity, and all the strength to fight the battles, is focused. Scientists call this a supersaturated solution. It is the increase in concentration of a solution past the saturation point. This is unity and beyond! CrossWay will be more effective at loving God, loving people, and sharing the gospel when we are supersaturated with the kind of unity that comes in the studying of God’s Word together.
However, please remember that whether you choose to participate in one of CrossWays Bible studies or not, YOU are women’s ministry. Women’s ministry is just that, women ministering to women.
With much love for each and every one of you,
Meghan Heaton (Women’s Ministry Director)