The Table
Somewhere along the way, we stopped meeting at the table.
We still eat. We still get full. We still receive what we need. But instead of gathering together, we have learned to take our plates to our respective places. One person retreats to the den. Someone else eats at the kitchen counter. Another takes their plate to the bedroom. We are all eating from the same kitchen, under the same roof, but we are not necessarily eating together.
And lately, I have been thinking about what we lose when we stop coming to the table.
There is something beautiful about a table that has been prepared. The place settings are arranged. The chairs have been pulled out. The food has been graciously and lovingly prepared for everyone to partake. And instead of grabbing a plate and disappearing into separate rooms, we sit together.
We eat. We talk. We listen. Someone notices something in the meal that someone else did not. Someone asks a question. Someone reaches across the table and passes what another person needs.
This is what I have come to love so deeply about Bible study.
The Word of God is UHMAZING. It is living. It is sustaining. It is nourishing. It corrects us, comforts us, strengthens us, reveals God to us, and prepares us for the lives we have been called to live.
Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Jeremiah 15:16 KJV
There is something to eat here.
Jesus Himself said that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God in Matthew 4:4.
So yes, you can eat at home. You can open your Bible by yourself. You can study from your bedroom. You can meet God at the kitchen counter with your coffee beside you and your Bible open. You can receive revelation in the car and spend beautiful, necessary time alone with God.
Please do. Private devotion matters.
But private devotion was never meant to replace the beauty of gathering.
Acts 2:42 tells us that the early believers “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship.” Then Acts 2:46 gives us this beautiful picture of them continuing together, breaking bread from house to house. They had devotion, and they had fellowship. They had the Word, and they had one another.
There is something that happens when we bring what God has been teaching us privately into a room with other believers who have also been sitting with Him.
I can tell you what I noticed in the text, and you may see something I completely overlooked. You can ask the question someone else was afraid to ask. Someone can share what God has walked them through, and suddenly the scripture we have been reading becomes something we can see lived out. We sharpen one another. We encourage one another. We correct one another in love. We make room for questions, revelation, and growth.
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another…”
One another. There are portions of our growth that require another.
This is why I believe so deeply in gathering around the Word. Not because you cannot study without us. Not because you need DTV to hear God. Not because Tuesday night is somehow more sacred than the time you spend alone with Him. But because we are the Body of Christ, and the Body was never designed to live as disconnected parts.
First Corinthians 12 teaches us that the body is made of many members, yet it is still one body. The eye cannot tell the hand, “I have no need of thee.” Every member has a place. Every member matters.
So when I say the Body needs you here, I mean it.
Your questions matter. Your testimony matters. Your perspective matters. Your hunger matters. What God is developing in you may become encouragement for the person sitting beside you, and what they carry may be exactly what God uses to strengthen you.
And there is no kiddie table.
There is no separate place for the people who know all the scriptures while everyone still trying to find Habakkuk sits somewhere else. There is room for the person who has known God for decades and the person who met Him recently. There is room for the person with highlighted pages and years of notes and the person opening a Bible for the first time. There is room for questions. There is room for growth. There is room for the hungry.
There is room for you.
Hebrews 10:24-25 reminds us not to forsake gathering together, but to encourage one another. Gathering is not simply about occupying the same room. It is about participating in the life of the Body.
And that is what I want Drop The Verses to continue becoming.
Not a performance. Not a room where one person knows everything and everyone else simply listens. A community where the Word is opened, questions are welcomed, revelation is shared, truth is honored, Jesus is centered, and we grow together.
Because one thing the Word gon do is, DROP.
Jeremiah 23:29 says, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”
His Word has weight. His Word does the work. We are simply making room to receive it together.
And when we gather, my prayer is that we do not simply leave full. I pray we leave prepared.
Prepared to live what we have read. Prepared to pray what we have learned. Prepared to love people well. Prepared to recognize truth. Prepared to share the Gospel. Prepared to withstand what comes against us. Prepared to become doers of the Word and not hearers only, just as James 1:22 instructs us.
Because the goal was never to eat just so we could say we ate.
We eat because we need strength for where we are going.
So this is the invitation: come hungry and come expectant. Bring your Bible. Bring your questions. Bring what God has been showing you. Bring the parts you understand and the parts you are still wrestling with. Come ready to listen, participate, receive, and grow. There is a place for you in this conversation, and there is something beautiful about what happens when we choose to be present with God and with one another.
But I also want this invitation to extend beyond Drop The Verses. Go to your local church. Be planted. Be present. Gather with other believers. Sit under sound biblical teaching. Ask questions. Build relationships. Serve. Listen. Learn. Be a part of the conversation. Online community can be a beautiful supplement, but it should never become a substitute for being present within a local body of believers.
And when Tuesday comes, pull up a chair.
Drop The Verses Bible Study is held every Tuesday evening, and I would love for you to be in the room.
Come hungry. Come expectant. Leave prepared.
