About a dozen men from our church just got back from a three-night, four-day backpacking trip. We call these trips, “Discipleship On The Trail.” While we immerse ourselves in God’s creation we also discipline ourselves to be in the Bible. We study God’s word at every campsite, memorize it as we hike, and talk together about what God is showing us. The experiences are always rich - a band of brothers in God’s word and God’s creation.

We started off on this trip by contemplating John 8:31-32. It says, “Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

We noted that a distinguishing mark of a disciple of Christ is that he or she abides in the word of God. That word abide is interesting. It means ‘to continue in,’ or ‘to remain in.’

We practiced the discipline of reading a verse slowly, thinking carefully about it, and making as many observations from the verse as we could. This is different from reading large portions of Scripture quickly. Of course, there is benefit from doing that too, but our emphasis this past weekend was that of settling into just a few verses and seeing as much as possible within them.

I liken this practice to sitting quietly in the woods rather than walking quickly through the woods. When you walk through the woods you notice some wildlife, see the plants, feel the air, smell the forest…but you miss so very much! If instead, you find a log to sit on and quietly remain there with you ears alert and your eyes wide open…then you’ll really see the woods!

We saw wildlife when we were walking - birds especially. But it was when I took a break and sat down, and stayed there for a while, that this White-tailed Deer came close. We watched each other for about five minutes, and then she moved on. ‘Abiding’ in the woods gave me the opportunity to see more than merely walking through the woods!

The wild blueberries were plentiful and sweet! I picked them by the handful and ate! But if I hadn’t slowed down enough to see what was beside the trail, I would have missed them.

This guy was missed by a couple of the men. They walked just a few feet away, but didn’t see the snake. Someone else had eyes wider open, and saw the Eastern Timber Rattler!

A fast pace would have missed this splash of orange in the midst of the green and brown underbrush! But again, the slower pace revealed more of God’s creation.

And so it is when we read the Bible. If we slow down and deliberately try to see how much we can glean from the verses we are reading, the blessings flow!

Try camping in His word! And, may the Lord give you eyes and ears, and a heart to sit and listen and look, so that you will see all that He has for you in His word!