Sunday or Wednesday
Posted on March 7, 2008
What do cookies and milk have to do with the Bible studies on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings? I’ll get to that in a second.
First in a series
For quite some time I’ve been wanting to write a series of articles about various aspects of Calvary Cleveland. It’s my hope that these articles will help explain why we do things the way we do, what’s important to us and what isn’t. First up in the series is the difference between our Sunday morning and Wednesday evening Bible studies.
Like cookies and milk
Like cookies need milk it’s my firm belief that these two Bible studies need each other. Without a doubt they stand on their own and each one is beneficial, but I believe they are better together. Why? Because these two studies approach the Word of God from slightly different angles.
Wednesday evenings are verse by verse
Wednesday evening Bible studies are done in a verse by verse manner, usually a chapter at a time. It is our aim to study the entire Word of God, verse by verse, cover to cover. In April of 2006 we started our journey through the Bible in the book of Matthew. Lord willing, we will one day have studied each verse of every book, bringing our lives in contact with all of God’s Word. What a powerful thing it is to let all of God’s Word have access to all of our lives!
Studying the Bible verse by verse allows us to see the context of each verse and each chapter. We even seek to understand each book in the context of the rest of Scripture.
Verse by verse teaching is a very simple and approachable way of studying God’s Word: we’re giving God a chance to speak and we’re taking time to listen. It’s not complex, it’s really quite simple.
Sunday mornings are in-depth
As we study verse by verse we inevitably come across topics or issues that need extra time. That time is allotted on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning Bible studies are an opportunity for us to focus more intently on a lesson or issue from the chapter we studied Wednesday evening.
For example, while studying through the gospel of John, we spent two Wednesday evenings studying verse by verse through chapter 6. The first week we were able to cover verses 1-21, which included the story of the feeding of the five thousand. That following Sunday we spent the whole Bible study looking at God’s ability to miraculously provide and His faithfulness to do so.
Sunday mornings gives us the ability to dig deeper and discuss at greater length subjects that we could only mention briefly on a Wednesday evening.
Like I said earlier, these two studies are intended to complement one another. They stand on their own but they’re better together. Just like cookies and milk.