How many hours a week do we spend gathered together at a church service or Bible study? Maybe 2 hours on a Sunday, an hour and a half at a mid-week Bible Study, and maybe another couple of hours a month if you attend something like the Academia Church Women’s Bible Study. All tallied, this averages out to a maximum of 4 hours a week spent studying the word of God, if every minute of those services was spent in Scripture, which is entirely unlikely. Now compare this to the amount of time we spend watching television, movies, reading magazines, newspapers, and listening to the radio. It is reported that the average American watches an average of 4-5 hours of television a day- over 34 hours a week on just TV alone!
With all the messages that are pumped into our brains through the various media outlets, we must be conscious of the need to devote some of our personal time to reading and understanding the Scriptures. The time spent in the word at church alone is not enough to offset the many competing messages which are all around us in the world today.
Each month the women at the Women’s Bible Study are given a study guide to help them along as they read the Bible in their own free time. It also helps keep all of the women on the same page, so that our group discussions are more informed and edifying. The material in the study guide will be posted online as well, so that if you miss a meeting or prefer to work on the computer you will still have what you need for fruitful study of the Bible in your personal time.