Lesson By Lesson

Get the truth and never sell it;also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.

Proverbs 23:23

It doesn’t matter how much money or education you have, every one of us has to buy wisdom on the installment plan, lesson by lesson, truth by truth. Each time we seek God’s wisdom, he gives us more. Each time we trust God’s wisdom, he gives us more.

Bible Study Fellowship, founded in 1959 by A. Wetherell Johnson, is the perfect illustration that God’s wisdom is sometimes delivered to us in unusual packages. Ms. Johnson was a British missionary serving in China until 1950, when Mao Tse-tung’s communist regime forced missionaries to leave. She loved China deeply. With a torn heart she moved to the States. Five ladies in San Bernardino, California, asked her to teach a Bible study. Here are her words: “My heart fell! What had I come to? . . . In China there are millions who have not even heard His name. Am I to give more to those who already have so much?” Reluctantly she promised to pray. Dashed hopes are often the breeding ground for God’s wise ways to birth great things. She did say yes, but told them she would not spoon-feed them the Bible. She prepared lesson questions to help them dig deeper using the inductive study method. Bible Study Fellowship has now grown to over one thousand classes with over two hundred thousand members in thirty-eight nations across six continents.

Has one door shut in your life, leaving you confused and sorrowful? Ask God for wisdom. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, NKJV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Our proverb for the day comes from The One Year Bible. This Bible arranges a daily reading in which you read a portion of the Old Testament, New Testament, a Psalm, and a Proverb every day. I have to tell you, there is nothing I look forward to more in the morning than taking my cup of coffee, my Bible, and my notebook and sitting in a secret place with the Lord. I love to take notes. I love to stop and ponder and pray, asking the Lord to teach me and show me how to apply his truth. Will you join me reading along this journey?

One Year Bible Reading

Isaiah 33:10–36:22; Galatians 5:13-26; Psalm 64:1-10; Proverbs 23:23