We don't have to have a good grip on the Bible, do we not?
In order to be a Christian, we should have a good grip on the Bible.
Now when you think from a physical perspective, you know, we don't hold our Bible like two
fingers or something, right?
When you hold your Bible, you hold it like this.
I'm talking about men.
Women, you know, they kind of do this thing or whatever.
You know, us, we kind of, we just hold it like this, you know?
Or you can, you know, go like this.
But either way, you use all fingers when you are holding the Bible to get a good grip,
to hold your Bible, right?
Well, I'm going to give a spiritual application to that because in order to be a Christian,
you have to have a firm grasp of the Word of God.
And I'm not talking about physically.
I'm talking about from a spiritual perspective because how do we know if we're in the Bible?
How do we know that we are actually adhering to God's Word?
Well here are five things, the five fingers, okay?
To know that you, to confirm that you have a firm grasp of the Word of God.
The thumb would be hearing the Bible.
What does that mean?
You're coming to church and you're hearing and preaching, right?
You're coming to church, you hear the preaching of God's Word, bam!
You got that right there.
But you know what?
If that's all you got, you're not holding anything, okay?
Hearing the Bible, that's why it's important that you're in church.
To hear preaching, to hear the teaching of God's Word, et cetera.
The second finger is you read the Bible.
What does that mean?
That's your daily walk with God.
Now at that point, you know, you got something.
Very flimsy, but you got somewhat of a grip.
Daily devotions.
What does that mean?
You actually read the Bible yourself when you're home, okay?
Not just when you're in church.
Means every morning or evening or whatever time you have, you crack open the Bible and
you're reading it.
Go grab a calendar in the back, a Bible calendar, so you can read the Bible throughout the year,
okay?
Read the entire Bible from cover to cover.
God wants us to read the Word of God.
Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
So the first finger is you got to hear the Bible.
The second finger is you got to read the Bible.
The third one is you have to apply the Bible.
So the things that you're listening to in church and the things you're reading from
in the Bible doesn't really mean much if you don't apply it, right?
You know, you hear about getting right with God, getting sin out of your life, and you
go home and you get right with God.
You hear about this and you say, you know what, I want to be a Christian.
I need to do more soul-winning.
I need to start soul-winning, period.
I need to read the Word of God.
This is the application.
Don't be a hearer of the Word, only be a doer because if not, you're just deceiving yourself.
Don't behold your natural face in the glass, you go your way and you forget what manner
of man you were.
God says in order to have a fairly good grip, you got to hear it, you got to read it, you
got to apply it.
Number four, I will say this, you should memorize it.
Memorize the Word of God.
Now, you know, I'm not saying you have to memorize entire chapters.
I would definitely recommend for you to do so, but you know what you can start with is
just memorizing the Romans' road.
That way you hit two birds with one stone.
You memorize the Romans' road and you use it when you go out soul-winning, right?
Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
Hiding God's Word in our heart is important, and one of the ways to do that aside from
flashcards is just reading the Bible over and over again because it gets embedded into
your brain.
It gets embedded into your heart and in your soul.
So that's four.
That's really good.
Okay?
But we don't want like a pinky kind of a thing going on here, right?
Who walks like that?
You know what I'm saying?
Let me just move my pinky out.
We want a firm grasp.
So what's the fifth one?
We have to preach the Bible.
That's soul-winning and discipleship.
Because when we go out and preach the gospel, we're preaching the Word of God.
But you know what, ladies?
When you're teaching your children, you're discipling your children.
Men, team leaders, when you're spending time with your team and you're teaching them the
Word of God, that's discipleship.
When you are regurgitating that which you have learned, you're teaching the Word of
God.
So in order for us to be a good Christian, we need a firm grasp of the Word of God.
In order to have a firm grasp, all five fingers should be on point.
So today you should look at it and say, well, which finger am I missing?
Am I just a palm Christian?
I just bring my Bible and I'm just one of those people who just brings my Bible so people
can see that I have a Bible?
Or do you have a firm grasp of the Bible?
And look, not doing these things perfectly because no one's perfect, but fight for that
balance to have these in your life.