Put off by the study of Scripture?

I was trying to read Matthew in one sitting today but I was not very serious about it. I read it in my cell phone, the KJV bible and fell asleep after being lulled by the king’s English! O forgive me, Lord.

This section impressed on me though. Here it is, not in KJV but NASB:

Matthew 4:23-25
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

Jesus was very active in his ministry – he was teaching, evangelising and healing. I wonder if there is a progression of importance here – teaching, evangelising and healing. But whether or not there is a progression, all three has to be done, and there is a lot of work to do, wherever we are: to teach, to evangelise and to heal. People need to know about the LORD, they need to be brought to believe in him and they need to be healed from their sickness, physical, spiritual or emotional.

But even if the importance begins with teaching, then evangelising and then healing, it would in practical start with healing, then evangelising and then completed with teaching. The passage above served as the precursor to Jesus' teaching in his Sermon on the Mount, that is, when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them. (Matthew 5:1-2).

There must be teaching; which in turn, brings me to something I just discovered.

There is this particular church that wanted to start some small groups, which was good. The church was growing in number and there is a need to connect the people with one another and smaller group meetings should be the way. However, the church has decided that it will be officially announced that the groups shall not be bible study groups, because they believe that if they are, it will “scare” the people away from attending the small groups. They will instead be sermon-based.

The result?: the attendance of the groups were in fact, pretty good.

I am not saying that there are no teaching in these groups, but what does it say about Christians and the church in our days? Afraid to study? Unwilling to spend time and effort in digging into the Word? Still too baby and so only milk is requested and only milk is given? And where is the root of it all, the church or the people? I sadly wonder.

pearlie

p/s by the way, for those who were following my story on our hamsters, it turned out that we bought a pregnant hamster! We now have 8 babies in tow. For note, their birthdays were on 29th March 2009.