Is it just me or is everybody else tired of 'studying' Jesus.  The command He gave was to follow him, yet it seems like 90% of everything we do is focused on studying Him, analyzing His word, looking for cute little nuances in his teachings that sound cool and important and make for good illustrations.  Is that really following?  NO, IT IS NOT, and that's the problem.  If we were to take his word at face value and just begin to follow him, which I define as living out his commands in daily life (not simply studying them with our buddies), then our spiritual lives would take on an entirely new dimension.  For example, maybe we don't need to take the financial peace class, we just need to give generously.  Maybe we don't need to take that leadership class this semester, we just need to intentionally serve everyone that works for us every single week for a semester.  Maybe we don't need to study Paul's missionary prayer letter to the Phillipians, but rather we need to become a missionary to our neighbors by serving them, inviting them into our homes, into our church, etc.   Another insightful study on prayer . . . maybe just an hour of prayer a week instead of another hour studying it?

So some may write me off as a heretic, but put me down as an official Bible study skeptic.  Why?  Because it is very easy for "Bible study" to become our drug of choice that consoles us while we are continually refusing to follow the very commands we are studying.  It is like a football player that has the playbook memorized inside and out, but he never runs sprints or lifts weights, he simply studies the playbook.  Do you think he will ever execute on the field?  No, and worse than that he will be an embarassment to his teammates as he will be overweight, out of shape and pitifully slow.  And so it is with our endless array of fun, "life-changing", provocative Bible studies that feed the mind but do nothing to exercise the soul.  Can't we just hit the field and execute the commands we already know???

John 5:39-40:  Jesus said to the religious people of his day - You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.