…be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only..–James 1:22
It was discovered that in the margin of several pages in D. L. Moody’s Bible that he had written the letters “T” and “P”, which meant “Tried” and “Proved”. In other words, Moody had put into practice what he read from God’s Word, and in each case proved it to be true. We ought to do the same. Whether you mark in your Bible or not is up to you, but we all ought to be marked by the Bible. When there is a command we ought to obey it. When there is a promise we ought to embrace it. When there is a principle we ought to follow it. Where there is a warning we ought to heed it. When we study the Bible it ought to be with the attitude that the learning is for the living. Just accumulating facts is not enough–we need to apply what we learn to how we live. Bible study should affect our heart and hands as well as our head. Don’t think of it as a task to endure, but as a treasure to explore.
We haven’t actually accepted what the Bible says until we apply it to our life. As J. A. Bengel wrote, “Apply yourself to the whole text, and apply the whole text to yourself”. That’s good advice.
Bruce Hurt writes— “Don’t be like Crowfoot, the Chief of the Blackfoot nation in southern Alberta, who gave the Canadian Pacific Railway permission to lay track from Medicine Hat to Calgary, and in exchange received a lifetime railroad pass. Reportedly, Crowfoot put the pass in a leather pouch and wore it around his neck for the rest of his life – but he never once availed himself of the rights and privileges it spelled out. He had the ‘truth’ but never acted upon it. If we study to now but never do, we like Chief Crowfoot will never fully tap into the blessing of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ep.1:3).”
