Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor's Page
Dear Friends in Christ,
Last month I shared with you my encouragement to find a quiet place to be still and spend time in meditating on God’s Word as well as in prayer. This newsletter article is kind of a natural extension of that. How can you meditate on God’s Word and let it speak to your soul if you’re not in the Bible regularly?
I would suggest to you that it’s impossible. If you don’t have the calming, peaceful words of God pouring into your mind, other stuff will sure fill that void. And all that will bring you is more unsettled confusion. So we need to regularly be taking in God’s precious Word.
An illustration came to me, of all things, while doing cattle chores the other day! Some of you know this, but cattle are a unique category of animals called “ruminants.” Simply put, they have 4 chambers to their stomach, whereas humans and many other mammals have only one. These 4 chambers are what allow cattle to get sustainable nutrition out of pasture grass, hay, and even corn stalks. They can rapidly consume large amounts of forage which doesn’t immediately pass through their stomach like it would in ours. Rather, they regurgitate it later and chew on their cud. Each time they do it they digest the foraged material even further, getting more and more nutrients out of it.
Okay, I know you’re wondering what this little discourse in animal biology has to do with reading and studying the Bible. Well, let’s apply the analogy and you’ll see. In worship, we are “fed” God’s Word in the readings, the liturgy, and the sermon. Hopefully, you’re also reading your Bible regularly at home. All that is good. But are you ruminating on it. Are you bringing it back up in your mind and “digesting” it even more? This is the only way you’re going to be able to apply it to your life. It’s what allows your soul to get even more spiritual nutrients out of what was read and heard. And that’s where Bible Class comes in. What we do in our Bible classes is to further digest the Word of God. Can you do that on your own? To a certain extent, yes. But what if your fellow Christian needs help digesting? You may be depriving that person of the assistance you can provide by sharing insights and even questions. Furthermore, it’s a given that you won’t have all the answers to your questions. Not even the leader does, which includes your Pastor. So, we dig even deeper to uncover the meatier material it contains.
All of this is why I get concerned as your Pastor when I don’t see a desire to gather and study God’s Word of Life. You have no idea what you’re missing. I would caution you on Bible studies that you might find online or outside our church fellowship, especially by non-Lutherans. Without knowing it, you might be ingesting some harmful doctrines. Trust me, I know. I listen to broadcasts of both LCMS Lutherans as well as other denominations. I do it for a couple reasons, but the foremost being is that it informs me about what you are being exposed to. Gayleen can vouch for me that I often argue with the radio or internet when I listen to those non-Lutherans. That’s good because it sharpens my skills in defending the truth of what God’s Word actually says.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to get across is the importance of us “ruminating” on God’s Word together. It will help you grow in your faith and knowledge of God’s will for your life. Consider this your invitation to attend one or more of the Bible classes we offer at Zion. If for some reason you don’t feel interested in that topic or Book of the Bible, please let me know. I’m willing to lead you in any study of the Bible which will allow you to further digest God’s Word and apply it to your life. Together, let’s do some ruminating on this heavenly food for our souls!
In Christ, Pastor Don Meyer
