“Fresh”

With pretty much any animal that one chooses to have as a pet, they all have something similar in common in that it is you that needs to take care of them, at least in some way. If you have a hamster or mouse you will need to occasionally change out their bedding, adding fresh wood chips to their cage. If you have a pet cat or a dog you will sometimes need to completely clean out their water bowls, getting rid of all of the old gross water and replacing it with fresh.

Maybe you noticed a word that I used a couple times already. The word “fresh.” If something is fresh it isn’t old. It is not “stagnant” or “stale.” It’s “recent” or “new.” 

But while there may be things in our daily life that become kind old or stale, the teachings of God’s Word cannot be one of those things. Once you complete reading the New Testament you can start it over again, studying it even more. Maybe you will notice something that you never had understood before, and now you do. We can always learn something new.

You can read a book or watch a movie and not fully understand or notice everything that has happened. So you can read or watch it again, and maybe that time you will notice something that you didn’t before. Maybe something will become “clear” and you will understand something new.

Sometimes a person might think that a teacher in a school learns their knowledge at college and once they become a full time teacher, that they don’t go and learn anymore. But that is not the case. Every so often, the teachers are required to go and “refresh” their memory, and learn more things that they didn’t know before.

I have read the New Testament several times for years, and I still am learning new things that I didn’t understand before. And I know there are still many, many more things that I still have to learn. So I continue to study and keep God’s word fresh in my mind.

And that is why Paul might have written the same things several times to some of the churches. He told them that it wasn’t a hard or tedious thing for him to have to do, but it was a good thing for them to hear.

“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.” Philippians 3:1

Whenever you read the scriptures or hear it preached, pay close attention. The more times you can receive the word into your mind, the more you will understand, and the more you will retain in your memory.

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Hebrews 2:1

The Word of God is a book filled with wisdom and it should be our goal to obtain that wisdom. Have you read the Bible? Then read it again, keep it fresh in your mind, and learn something new.

In Christ,

Andrew