Last night at 10pm I remembered that our Men’s Group started Bible Study this morning at 6:30am. I looked at Misty after a day of shopping for clothes for Kyle and spending time with the family and I said, “oh no” I am so tired and now I don’t want to get out of bed at 5:20am in the morning. However, when I went to bed I set the alarm for 5:20am. I slept good and even woke up a couple of minutes before the alarm went off.
I was reminded real soon after getting to the church why it is that I like the UMM Bible Studies so much. It is so hard as a Pastor to come on Sunday Mornings and be Spiritually fed, some may disagree. If someone disagrees they would have to be a pastor first to know what it is like. On most Sunday mornings I arrive at the church between 7 & 8am to get ready for the 8:30am service, many times I will get here much earlier if I am preaching that morning. By the time I get into the service on most Sundays I have dealt with so many things that it is hard for me to do anything other than focus on making this a meaningful worship experience for the congregation and to be honest by the end of the day I am exhausted.
This Bible Study is where I come to get fed, to get sermon ideas and illustrations. This Bible Study is where I come to be Spiritually fed. It never fails that I get sermon ideas from what we discuss in the time together. It never fails that I hear God speak to me and this morning I could hear His voice so clearly.
We started a new study this morning, “The Book of Ephesians”by Eddie Rasnake. 
I just want to share a couple of things that God spoke to me about this morning. Paul is the author of Ephesians and most likely wrote 13 books or Letters in the New Testament. This is the first thing that God spoke to me about. It is amazing and mind boggling to me that Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian Church 2000 years ago and still today, millions of people, all over the World are being impacted by his words. Paul still speaks from the grave. I thought about the fact on Saturday at Camp, Brandon said that he likes to write. Wouldn’t it be awesome if people are reading Brandon’s writings in 2000 years. I would be honored if I could impact people today with my writing and oh how I would like to speak on behalf of God and be quoted in 2000 years. We need to sit up and take note of what Paul has to say if people are still reading it and being impacted all these years later and to beat all, all these Countries of the World that are impacted. Wow
I want to be known as a “Student of the Word”. I know that may sound cliche but I really mean that. I believe this study is going to make me a student of Ephesians as we will be immersed in it for the next 24 weeks. Paul was a student of Gamaliel, in that day people would hang out with a Rabbi and they became a student of that person. There was a saying in that day “covered in the dust of the Rabbi”, they would follow the Rabbi around learning from them and the roads were dusty. That was a very great honor to be covered with dust from the one you are learning from.
One last thing that I will say about the study guide, I love the APPLY Sections throughout the book. I just finished reading “Out of the Box and Loving it” by Todd Shaw and one of the quotes that I will always remember is “Information without Application leads to Frustration”. This is so true. We come to church, Bible Study, Men’s meetings, Youth Meeting and we get so much information but if we never apply it to life it just leads to frustration. Application is the key to knowledge.
We will meet again Tuesday morning October 7th@ 6:30am. There are Study Guides here and all men are invited. You do not have t be a member of this church to come and grow and fellowship with others and learn to walk closer with our Lord in the Bible Study. If you are interested let me know and we will set a study guide aside for you.
Blessings and I hope you are dusty from the dust of Jesus the Ultimate Rabbi.
Ronnie