"Everything written in the Bible is truth."
Written by YWAM Orlando staff Emily Radley, following is a reflection on personal growth and discovery during her Bible Intensive Course. The Bible Intensive Course is a twelve-week school in which students gain an understanding of the Bible through the inductive study method.
My Experience with the Bible Intensive Course
I’ve always wanted to know more about the Bible.
I’ve known about obvious things like John 3:16, Jesus’ birth and death, and Creation, but I didn’t understand most of it. So I’ve had a desire to understand it more but never really knew when a good time to begin studying it would be.
When I was moving back from living overseas, I was listening to a podcast from Andy Byrd about hunger for the Word. He talks about how we need to be invested in the Word because it has the answer for everything. Andy then reads Psalm 119, and it’s basically King David’s love letter for the Scriptures - before the New Testament. A love letter for Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy! I remember opening up my Bible, reading Psalms 119, and just being floored with David’s passion for these books. In verse 160 he writes “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.” Everything written in the Bible is truth. Again, I was floored by this, and I knew that I needed to do a Bible Intensive Course.
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When I started this course, I had no idea what God was going to reveal to me.
That was cool and kind of scary, but I was so ready for it. Every single week I learned something new about the character and nature of God. The one profound revelation I had was in 1st Kings with Elijah, when God told him to go to Sidon and said, "...behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” As I read on and saw how Elijah asked her to make a cake even though she only had a little flour and oil left, God spoke to me saying, "Don't you think this is a parallel to when Jesus fed the 5,000?” As I sat on that thought for a while, I started to realize that God knew exactly why I needed to hear that.
You see, I struggle with unbelief of provision some of the time. It sounds crazy when I say it out loud because I have literally seen God provide in crazy ways, but there will always be that moment of weakness when the enemy likes to come in and scare me from believing for the provision. So when God made the connection of provision between Old and New Testament, I couldn't shake it. He provided flour and oil for this widow, and He fed 5,000 people years after. I had the revelation that God is literally the same yesterday, today, and furthermore - and why should I ever doubt Him to come through when that's what He has been doing this whole time for His people? “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.”
5 Ways to Cultivate Joy in Your Life
Once this connection hit my heart, I started to cry in class …
... filled with remorse for doubting His character all those times. This is just one of the many revelations about God I had during this course.This course shaped me to read the Bible differently. Now the words literally pop off the page. I feel my heart change in the way I worship Him. I understand why I worship God and what a joy it is to do so. I have seen grace, kindness, love, mercy and justice displayed throughout not only the New Testament, but the Old as well. To be honest, that has been my favorite part to see!
Written By:
Emily Radley | YWAM Orlando Staff