Welcome! I’m so glad that you’re reading this because what is the “sound of a blog if no one is around to read it”? Okay, that was lame. So let me quickly change the subject.
When I was teaching high school English several years ago, I heard a news story that troubled me. I’ve lost the statistics, but the story highlighted how many millions (not thousands, millions) of people are functionally illiterate in the U.S. I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. I imagined people who didn’t get medical care because they couldn’t complete the paperwork. I imagined under-employed people, people with talents and skills that were doomed to a mediocre existence because they couldn’t complete a job application.
Then I was moved to tears. I thought of all the people who could not read the Bible for themselves. How would they know about a God who loved them so much that He died in their place. (I’m still moved to tears.)
I shared this with my students. “You might not think they had much to share with the world,” I told them, “but you can not only share Jesus but can help those millions of functionally illiterate people in many different ways.”
As the years have passed, I’ve learned what I consider an equally disturbing truth. Many Christian who can read, don’t study the Bible for themselves. Most don’t even read books that record the studies others have done. They merely listen to their pastors and read familiar verses from the Bible. They may even claim Bible promises, but they miss out on the rich currents of Living Water that are found in the Bible. They are content with seeing pictures taken from the top of the mountain but will not hazard the climb for themselves.
My dream is that this blog will equip and inspire at least one person to study the Bible for his/herself. That at least one life can be changed, enriched, and enlarged.
At the beginning of each week I will be sharing some Bible study tips that I have found or developed. In the middle of each week, I will be sharing a write-up of one of my Bible studies, my well-driven nails. Yes, now you understand the name. What I’m sharing are nail-collection techniques and items my personal nail collection. My words are not the well-driven nails. Please, go with me in your Bible to Ecclesiastes 12:11, “The words of the wise are like goad, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.”
Come and join me. Let’s find some of Jesus’ well-driven nails on which we can secure our faith.
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