Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

Dear Friends and Members of IBC, On Sunday, I suggested studying the Bible and underlining every verse that describes something about God’s character. In this week’s Word for the Week, I would like to expand a little on this habit. Each year, students from all over the world come to study at one of Hamburg’s well-known universities. We are grateful that some of them attend our church. The word “student” actually comes from the Latin Studentem and means “one who is studying something”. While universities take breaks for Easter, Summer, and Christmas, we know that every Christian is a lifelong student of the Bible - so our studying never truly stops. But what does it really mean to study something? Study is not simply the accumulation of knowledge or information for its own sake. Rather, it is a discipline concerned with the transformation of our minds as we focus on what we are studying. It is involved with the content of the things we think about. This matters deeply, because what we fix our minds on clearly influences our actions and feelings. The content of what we study determines the kind of habits we form. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that when we start reading books on pray, study the lives of men and women devoted to prayer, spend time in the Psalms, reflect on the great prayers in the Bible, we begin to form healthy habits of prayer ourselves. On the other hand, if we consistently fill our minds with celebrity gossip, the latest Netflix series, or in-depth football analysis, at the expense of God’s word, then this may hinder our intimate walk with Jesus. At times, we may feel hesitant about studying the whole Bible for ourselves. Perhaps we are unsure of what we might find, maybe we will discover something that is too strange. So, we can be hesitant about engaging all of our minds with God’s truth. Yet Jesus calls us to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). This means engaging our minds with the truth of who God is and what He has done, as revealed throughout Scripture. One helpful step on this journey is to learn how we got the Bible – its history, its transmission, its translation. When we see how God has amazingly preserved His Word over the last 2,000 years, our confidence and joy in it can grow all the more. God bless you James