Berne, May 1, 2012. [CD-EUDnews/Kamil Majer]. Study of God's Word should be the cornerstone of the life of every Christian, particularly of the Adventists. The reality, however, proves different. People often do not study the Bible. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was based upon the great spiritual revival in the study of God's Word. Therefore the Adventists lay such an emphasis on the study of the Scriptures. The board of the General Conference came up with the worldwide initiative “Revived by His Word”, which is a systematic study of the Scripture, a chapter a day. The Czechoslovak Union Conference joined this initiative and the prime responsibility for this project was taken by the students of the Theological Seminary in Sazava, Czech Republic.
In the past there has been a number of initiatives promoting regular Bible study, but their course was solely held on individual basis. In frequent cases people started studying the Bible, but stopped after a short time, dissuaded by the number of unanswered questions they had.
The initiative Revived by His Word is different precisely in the emphasis on mutual sharing. In the Czechoslovak environment, it was necessary to culturally adjust the project; hence the initiative runs here under the title Studium písma (Study of the Script). A website www.studiumpisma.org has been created, for people t
o share. The site contains articles, as well as the responses to them. Every day, according to the plan, one article titled as the selected chapter from the Bible, is pinned on the website. The article contains the text of the chapter from the Scriptures (in both Czech and Slovak languages) and a series of questions to think about while reading the text. Underneath is the space for comments, where the "students" could share their ideas, thoughts, experiences, questions or answers.
The students of the Theological Seminary follow this discussion and participate, especially when questions appear that require deeper theological insight.
We are glad this initiative has come and settled in our environment. We realize, however, that the study of the God's Word could only be beneficial for someone, if the Holy Spirit enters his/her mind and opens his/her ears to listening and his eyes to seeing. We pray that God blessed this initiative not only in our Union, but also in the rest of the world.
Kamil Majer Student of Sazava Theological Seminary