KEY SCRIPTURE:1 Samuel 1:28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.

We continue with our discussions on bible study as we major on character study. This time we would consider prophet Samuel.

Samuel was born out of aggressive, travailing prayer from His mother Hannah who was barren. (1st Samuel 1:9-11). His mother also vowed unto the Lord that if God was to give her a male child, she would intend give the child back to God. (1st Samuel 1:11). Samuel’s mother honoured her vow the moment the child was weaned (1st Samuel 1:26-28). God also gave Samuel ‘s mother five children, that is three boys, two girls.

Samuel started serving in the house of God at an early age. The Lord audibly called Samuel, although for the first two times he ran to Eli because he taught Eli was calling him.  Eli asked him to say the next time God called that, speak Lord for the servant heareth (1st Samuel 3:10). The. Lord called again and He spoke audibly to Him. God still speaks.

Samuel became a judge of Israel after Eli died. Samuel was a very diligent leader. He did not sit in Ramah to judge the whole of Israel. In Samuel 7:16 it says ” And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places.”

 The Bible did not state whether he had men in the various town representing him and gave him a feedback of what was going on there. I believe he had such men and places he resided in those towns to judge or speak God’s mind to them.

In 1st Samuel 8 we realized Samuel made his sons judged Israel yet they did not walk in the fear of God as their Father did. This misconduct of his sons caused the Israelites to demand a King to reign over them. It seems the problem Eli had with his sons was the same that Samuel also had with his sons . Parents must be careful, your children learn from the way you lead the family and they would do (Samuel saw these mistakes in Eli, but repeated them. ) likewise. God said Eli did not restrain his sons (1st Samuel 3:13), that is he should have employed the Elders to forcefully driven them from the priestly duties.

Samuel was a man of prayer and would always commune with the Father when there was any case for him to consider. 1st Samuel 8:6. When the Israelites were demanding a King although he felt rejected, he took time to explain to them the implications of having a king. A lesson to leadership: when your members are agitating for a change, do not brush them off, explain the consequences of their desire. Samuel was led to choose Saul to be the first King of Israel.

In 1st Samuel 12:3 he asked the Israelites to point out any defrauding he might have done, or anyway he has acted wrongly? Yet they found none. Samuel was a very upright man. Leadership must always be without blemish. Even at old age he kept teaching them the ways of God.

  PRAYER

O Lord God I pray for all leaders, that they will be men and women of distinguish character, men and women without blemish.

FURHTER STUDIES.

1 Samuel 12:3 ” Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.”

1 Samuel 12:4 ” And they said, thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. “

We continue with our discussion of the various aspects of bible study. This time we look at character study.  A character study involves taking a study on the life of any of the characters in the bible. There are so many men and women in the bible, with wonderful experiences that can teach us a lot.

There are people like Moses, Abraham, David, Elisha, Uriah, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Abigail, Mary and many more. It is amazing to study about their characters. On studying, some of the characters, you have to patiently read through a number of chapters from the scriptures to have a fair grasp of these character.

I will want us to study about a simple character like Uriah. The story about him can be found in 2nd Samuel 11:1-27. From verse 3 we are told that Uriah was the husband of Bathsheba. He was also a Hittite.  King David happened to have an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. The woman became pregnant and therefore told King David. The king planned to cover up his sin. Uriah was on the battle field fighting under the army general Joab. King David Asked Uriah to come home. The king then asked him to go and sleep at home supposing he would sleep with his wife but he   lay at the king’s door. (2nd Sam.11:9). King David asked him, “why did you not go to your house?” This was Uriah’s answer, “And Uriah said unto David, the ark, and Israel and Judah, abide in tents, and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields, shall I then go to mine house, to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As thou liveth, I will not do this thing”. By this answer Uriah demonstrated that he was a noble man, a dependable, selfless, and a very focused man to his duties. His commitment to uprightness saved him from falling into the trap set for him. COMMIT YOURSELF TO RIGHTEOUS STANDS AND YOU WOULD BE SAFE FROM SATANIC TRAPS.

In verse 13, King David made him drink so he would go to his house, yet he did not fall into that temptation. Uriah was a determined character. 

Finally, the king wrote a letter to be given to Joab, to place Uriah at a hot point in the battle so he would be killed. Uriah was killed by this plot yet he died   gallantly. Always stand for the truth no matter the threats.

 PRAYER

Father, I pray that my life would continually be dedicated to honouring you inspite of what men may say or do.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Job 2 :3

“And the Lord said unto Satan has thou considered my son Job, that there is no one like him on earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and eschewed evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

Psalm 25:21

” Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 15:33 ” The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility”.

I will want us to take another topic from the scriptures and study about it. This time we will look at HUMILITY.

Once again you would need your bible, a concordance, a bible dictionary, your pen and note book. The Bible dictionary (strong dictionary) defines humility as meekness or condescension. The Oxford learner’s dictionary defines humility as a lack of pride.

We would consider various scriptures that talk about humility. The first to look at is our key scripture

Proverbs 15:33. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility. This verse shows one of the benefits as well as the functions of humility. Humility always precedes honour. Anytime a man acts sincerely in humility, honour and promotion is the next event in his life.

Proverbs 22:4 says, “by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour and life” In this instant we see humility coupled with the fear of the Lord. There can be no fear of God without humility and there can’t be humility without the fear of God. The bible said these give birth to riches, honour and life. All these benefits are the provisions from the Spirit of God and not any man. God is in love with the humble .                           .

Col 2:18, speaks about a voluntary humility. This is an act of the flesh to satisfy the mind. True humility always proceeds from the fear of God. It is a desire in the heart to please God at all instances. This gives us a working definition of humility. A humble man or woman is the one who has resolved in his heart to always do that which pleases God no matter the cost or the reaction of men. This implies the disposition of a man does not in any way show whether he is humble or not. .A man may look very calm and of few words , yet very proud. It is the condition of the heart towards God and His word that shows whether a man is humble or not.

 PRAYER

Heavenly Father I submit my will to honour you in all that your word may say.

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Peter 5:5 ” Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble”.

James 4:6 ” But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: James 1:4 ” But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

We continue with our discussion on having a bible study, by considering the topic, PATIENCE. From. our previous study we defined patience ” as a characteristic of a man, who is not swayed from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”  We first look at Romans 5:3,4 “Tribulation works patience….”. We learnt in our previous discussion that patience is very necessary even for the word of God to produce results in our lives. It takes tribulation, trials, challenges to produce patience in us. Patience gives us experience and experience results in hope. Great Christians with stable hearts that conquers are people of experience. Experience is always a product of patience. Note, you can’t be patient with simply making demands or praying to be patient, we allow the situations we go through to perfect patience in us.

Romans 8:25 reads “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with, patience wait for it. “Patience always looks beyond you and beholds the faithfulness of God. It is this foresight that makes the heart assured to wait without any agitation.

Romans 15:4 “for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope” from this verse we realized patience is built up in a Christian who has taken time to learn the word of God. Right information develops proper Christian character. The scriptures also comfort us. All these culminates in having hope. Be a learner of the scriptures.

Romans 15:5 describes God as a God of patience and consolation. It is His nature to bear long with his people. Although he is almighty, he never moves on impulse, that would have been the destruction of all men. He sees a victorious end from the beginning and so He is able to wait. Lesson, never act on impulse, or out of how you feel about a person that seems to make you satisfied. But act on the principle of what God expects from you concerning the individual you are dealing with.

2nd Corinthians 6:4 “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in affliction in, necessities, in distresses”.  The earlier verse says “and giving no offence in anything that the ministry be not blamed”. As servants of God, of which every child of God is, we must not allow anyone to reproach God’s work because of the way we behave. Patience is one ingredient to prevent the name of our God from being drawn into the mud. Patience to stand and overcome, distress, afflictions, insults mistreatments, lacks and all kinds of conditions that have the potential to affect God’s work is what we have to employ.

 We realized that as we go through various scriptures that talk on the topic of study, we come to the understanding of the topic.

PRAYER

O, God may your word and the events of life build in us patience to keep winning.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Colossians 1:11 ” Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”

2 Thessalonians 1:4 ” So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure”:

KEY SCRIPTURE: James 1:4. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We continue with our discussion on having Bible studies in various forms. Today we look at having a TOPICAL STUDY. This is an aspect of Bible study that considers various biblical topics of interest to you. Once again what you would require a Bible, a Concordance, a bible dictionary, your pen, your note book to put down all that you study. If you have the bible up on your lab top or phone, it would have all these. The Bible dictionary explains patience as follows: steadfastness, constancy, endurance, also it is a characteristic of a man who is not swayed from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

We now consider the role that patience plays in certain verses of scripture, giving us a better understanding of what it is. Matthew 18:23-34. This is a story about a man who owed ten thousand talents and his whole family, that is, his wife, children including himself and all that he had was to be sold to pay the debt. This man pleaded for patience and the Lord forgave him all the debt. He also found a friend who owed him a hundred pence. This man held his throat and threw him into jail, although he pleaded for patience. When this issue got to the master or Lord, He got furious and delivered the wicked man to the tormentors. From this story we learn that to be patient with those who offend us we’ve got to consider how much God has had patience with us. From verse 33 the Lord said, the man could not express patience because he had no compassion. A compassionate heart is very necessary for patience with others.

In Luke 8:15 the Lord talked about those who receive the word and are patient to allow it to grow to fruition. You may ask what part did patience play in this instant? It was patience that helped him not to give up on the seed (the word) in the waiting period when nothing seems to be happening. God’s word at certain times, needs patience to bring results to us.

The next verse on patience is Luke 21:19. “In your patience possess ye your souls”. In the context of this statement the Lord talked about the period of great trials and persecutions that would befall the church. Our souls, that is our mind, emotions and will could easily be shattered in the times of trials. Patience always looks beyond oneself: it considers the mightiness of God, his faithfulness and love. Patience then assures you of a better day so keep calm (Note: Patience is always a product of looking beyond yourself to God, focusing on the faithfulness of God and the fact that He changes not.

 PRAYER

O God open my eye to the reality of your mind.

FURTHER STUDIES.

1 Timothy 6:11.” But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

2 Timothy 3:10 ” But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,”

KEY SCRIPTURE:2 Timothy 2:15 ” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.

Most children of God do not study the Bible. One main reason is laziness. Others get so busy they don’t have the time. Well the issue is not about not having time or being lazy it is all about priority. We are always able to make time for the things that seem very important to us. There are others who really want to do it, yet they don’t know how. It is such people that I would like to teach how to do some aspects of Bible studies. We would consider word study.

In a word study we consider a particular word. It could be a verb, a noun or adverb. All that matters is that it is a word of interest. We would consider the word diligence. A look at the word diligence from the Concordance gives us about 10 appearances throughout the whole Bible. The meaning from each particular appearance is found within the context of the verse. We see the word diligence in Proverb 4:23. In this verse (using the bible dictionary) it is the Hebrew word “mishmar” and defined as a place of confinement, prison, guard, guard post, watch, observation. Proverbs 4:23 reads “keep thy heart with all DILIGENCE, for out of it are the issues of life”. From the meaning of the usage of the word in Hebrew it is a “place of confinement”, “prison”, “guard post”. This teaches us to keep or protect our hearts like a prisoner is held in prison. A prisoner is strictly confined from all Intruders. Whatever comes to him or her is what the prison authorities chose. This is the idea being carried to us in Proverbs 4:23, about being diligent

Another verse in which we find the usage of the word diligence is Luke 12:58. This time it is a Greek word since it is in the new testament. (The old testament was translated from the Hebrew language and the new testament, from Greek). The word is “ergasia”. This has the following meaning in Greek

1. A working, performing

2. Business

3. Gain, get by work, profit

4. Endeavour, pains.

The scripture involved is quite long so we would not quote all of it. Luke 12:38 “when thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in thy way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered…”. From the meaning the word diligence in this context means do your possible best or “make every effort”.

Because of space we look at third scripture: Romans 12:8. From the bible dictionary, the word diligence used in the verse means ‘spoude’ from the Greek translation. It means; haste, with haste, earnestness, earnestness in striving after anything.  Most earnestly: This word simply means to act with speed.

 This study teaches that the usage of words in biblical translations do not have same meanings, but their meanings are according to the context of the verse or passage.

   PRAYER

Father, it is time church gets to study your word with more seriousness as we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Romans 12:8. Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

2 Corinthians 8:7 ” Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also”.

KEY SCRIPTURE:2 Timothy 2:15. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

We would repeat the discussion of the inductive study this time too, to deepen our understanding.

We would consider Psalm 119:89,90. It reads “Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations, thou hast established the earth and it abideth”. We would consider the OBSERVATION:

1. Who is speaking?

2. Who are the persons involved in this verse?

3. What does the passage say?

We take the answers for these questions.

1. This verse is written by David 

2. The persons involved in the verse are:

a. The Lord

b. All generations, that is, all men for all time.

3. God’s word is settled in heaven forever His faithfulness is unto all generations and he had also established the earth and it remains

We now make our Inference. God has established His word and His faithfulness is unto all generations. What is the meaning of the word ‘settled, ‘it is the Hebrew word ‘natsab’ which means to stand or ‘to take your stand’.  That is God’s word is standing erect before the father in heaven, every word concerning you is not hidden but standing erect before the father. This word cannot be forgotten His faithfulness is unto all men including you. The earth is established on the basis of His faithfulness. God has no favorites. What He did for Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, He will do the same for every other person if they will do that which pleases Him.

 This verse gives us * *perfect assurance to believe the word of God. Every promise of scripture cannot fail.

APPLICATION: We must take God at His word. Every scriptural promise will produce results. Whatever the word says about any situation is true and would respond to our stand on the word concerning it.

The next point to acknowledge is that God would not treat me differently from how he responded to Elijah, Peter or John. He is forever the same towards all men. All that is required is to respond to God on his terms. These men responded selflessly to God’s word. They put their personal interest aside. God will forever be faithful to every man who stands for him and not himself or herself.

Thirdly since the earth is established by the Lord, He owns all that is in the earth, I am therefore never on my own, I am His own and would live to please Him alone, not myself.

CONFESSION

God is supreme over all. His word is over all and rules all. I am submitted to his word. I am a slave of his and does what the word says. I continually seek His interest and therefore He also stands for me in all things. 

FURTHER STUDIES.

Psalms 119:91. “They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.”

Psalms 91:1 ” He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”.

KEY SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 2:15 ” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

In our previous study we looked at what an inductive study is all about.

We would consider another practical example of using an inductive approach to study the Bible.  We shall consider John 10:10 for an example. “The thief does not come, but when he comes, he comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. We said the inductive study has three aspects, they are observation, Inference and Application. The observation involves using the fact-finding questions to look out for the basic facts in the verse. We may ask questions like:

1. Who is talking in this verse

2. Who are the persons involved in the verse

3. What are the persons spoken of doing in the verse? In this instant we will not use the other fact-finding questions like HOW, WHEN, WHERE because they may not apply to this verse.

From the verse, the following will be our answers to the questions:

1. The verse does not give us who is speaking so we would have to read from the beginning of the chapter: we learn it is Jesus

2. The persons involved are the thief, Jesus and All people. Who is the thief? To find who this thief is   we have to go back and read through the passage. We have been taught the thief is the devil but reading verses 1 and verse 8 we see it is not referring to the devil but rather false teachers. (In practice these acts spoken by Jesus are all the works and portraits of the devil anyway) yet in this passage it is referring to false teachers.

3. From the verse, the following are the activities of the persons in the verse. The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy.

ii. Jesus comes only to give life and give it more abundantly. (He has no evil agenda)

iii. The people have two options either they choose abundant Life or are destroyed by the thief.

We now consider the inference or make deduction from our observations.

i. The Lord Jesus tells the truth about himself and the false teachers. The false teachers are very crafty and always come undercover like a thief. They deceitfully steal, kill and destroy.

ii. Jesus also gives life and gives it more abundantly and nothing evil comes from Him. It is up to men to choose to receive life (truth) from Jesus or to be deceived by the thief.

APPLICATION: I will not accept any teaching that does not involve our Lord Jesus revealing His grace in giving life and giving it abundantly. False teachers do not free people but takes advantage of people by placing legalistic demands that places people in bondage. I am very alert to their deceptions.

  PRAYER

Lord Jesus, I pray for all Christians to be very alert to error and to know every false teaching, so they would not be held captive and deceived. May all be enlightened to study the bible effectively.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Luke 21:8 ” And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them”.

Colossians 2:8 ” Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: 2nd Timothy 2:15. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 An inductive study is to reason or analyse the subject from detailed facts to discover general principles for life application. In the inductive approach to studying the Bible, we break down the study into three main aspects.

These aspects are:

1. OBSERVATION

2. INFERENCE

3. APPLICATION

Under observation, we attempt to discover the basic facts in the passage or verse. We use the fact-finding questions to observe the basic facts in the verse. For example, let’s consider a verse like; John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life”. The fact-finding questions are as follows, WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE, WHEN, HOW. You may ask the following questions to find the basic facts in the verse or passage: Questions may vary depending on the content of the passage. These are samples of questions that you could ask. (1) who is speaking in this verse? (2) Who are those being discussed in the verse? (3) What was said about the person in the verse?  (4) Where was this statement made?

Now we attempt to answer these fact-finding questions:

1. To answer the first question, we must go to the beginning of the chapter: there we realise it was the Lord Jesus talking.

2. Those being talked about are God, Jesus Christ, the people in the world.

3.i The verse says God loves all men so much.

ii. The Lord Jesus was offered to die for all men. iii. Anyone in the world who would believe in Jesus will   have everlasting life.

4. The statement was made where Jesus was staying; at the time Nicodemus visited Him. We now look at the INFERENCE: Inference means what do you deduce from this answer or what is the implication of these facts that you have observed.

1. From our first answer we can infer that our Lord Jesus was a very down to earth man. He had been busy throughout the day yet he had the patience to sit and chart with Nicodemus at the night time when Nicodemus called on Him.

2. The father and the Son are actively involved in the salvation of men. Every human is special and a candidate for salvation.

3.Every human being is so precious to God such that He made the highest sacrifice for the redemption of ALL men. Any man no matter his or her background, or has committed the worse sin or not, so long as he or she believes in Jesus they would be saved.

4. Jesus welcomed Nicodemus a Pharisee although the Pharisees used to be hostile to Him.

The next step is to APPLY these deductions you’ve made from the objective questions into practical life.

1. We must be down to earth to relate well with all persons.

2. I will share the gospel with every single person I am opportune to relate with.

3. In considering the great sacrifice Jesus made for the salvation of all men I must also pay every price to see the salvation of others.

4. I will not relate to people according to how they treat me but how God would want me to treat them. Out of this one verse you have four action points to employ.

  PRAYER

O Father help me to grasp all that I study, so I will effectively apply them to my life experiences.

FURTHER STUDIES.

Joshua 1:8 ” This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”.

John 5:39. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

KEY SCRIPTURE: 2 Timothy 2:15 ” Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Our key scripture admonishes us to study the Bible. It is a very important practice for every child of God.

In reading the Bible, we only scratch on the surface of the information, but we go   deeper into the truth as we study. It helps us to fish out the hidden information that we may not see on the bear surface.

There are various aspects of the Bible to study.  The Bible could be studied by considering the various books of the Bible or have a topical study. For example, when you want to study a topic like Faith, or marriage. In this study you may use a concordance. Modern technology makes it easier. On our phones, tablets and computers you could easily enter the topic and every verse that talks about that topic will be listed, from which you could go through each verse and do an in-depth study on that topic.

You can also have a character study. The Bible is filled with so many characters. Moses, David, Adam, Paul are all various interesting characters you can consider. You will learn about their devotion to God, family life, personal challenges, successes and failures, and other issues that would be of interest to you.

You can also have a verse study. There are certain verses of scripture that are very loaded and it is worth taking an in-depth study of these verses. In such studies you consider each word in the verse. You can also use your Bible dictionary to consider the words of scripture. Once again, our phones and other information gadgets have the dictionaries on them. If you don’t have them you could download various Bible applications. One of such good bible app is the e-sword. This would teach you the Hebrew and Greek meaning of the words.

We are in a day that life is so fast that we have no time to sit down and study the word.  The word of God is His identity on the earth. This Means God lives in His word. If we neglect to study the bible, we do ourselves a great harm. Please discipline yourself. Set up some time in the whole week to sit down and study the Bible. These truths you discover would help you to wage a good warfare in life.

 PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. I pray that you grant me wisdom to behold wondrous truths out of the law.

FURTHER STUDIES:

Proverbs 4:20-21 ” My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart”.

1 Timothy 4:13 ” Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine”.