05/29/2026
(From our missionary, Randy Todd Cooperphd)
Word Awakening Newsletter:
Morning glory evening grace brethren and sistren, the 188th edition of Word Awakening Newsletter.
"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." (Josh. 1:8).
It's an old precept that what a person puts into something is what you will get out of it. If you want to be successful at a discipline, a vocation etc. you must at it without ceasing. No one is born an expert in a field. One comes to master a subject by putting long and hard hours into it.
Back in January 2009, I was watching the ice hockey junior championship. I vividly remember when Canada won the gold medal, the commentators fo the tournament boasted about all the effort Canadians put into hockey. "It's the little league coaches volunteering their time to help the kids be the best int he world." "I say this with pride, nobody is doing (hockey) like Canada."
People put hours and many dollars into trying to be a professional athlete. It's the same case with academic scholars. When a young person gets accepted into an Ivy League College, most people grandstand about how the young person was reading at a very young age. A student begins the philosophy program at Yale; their parents will go on about how they were reading Aristotle and Plato at age nine, studying metaphysics at age twelve. This kid worked long and hard to become one of philosophy's most elite.
How much more should God's people be diligent in God's work! "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." (Josh. 1:8). Unfortunately, the vast array of believers don't live up to Joshua 1:8 at all. The average member of the average "fundamental bible-believing" church never studies the Bible. They know nothing about bible dictionaries and bible commentaries. It's one thing to read a couple of chapters of the bible a day and read a two-minute devotion, but who is going to be a student of the word of God?
We were talking about professional sports athletes and professional academics. Who do they learn from? The best in their field. Great basketball players learn from Larry Bird, Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar, and Michael Jordan. The best philosophers learn from Plato, Aristotle, Renee Descartes, and G.W.F. Hegel etc. The greatest believers should certainly do likewise.
I'll start with a person many people may not be familiar with" Samuel Annesley. When he was only five-years-old, he read ten chapters of the bible a day. He lived a very disciplined life and became chaplain to Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick. His dialogue and discipline carried on to his children. His daughter Susanna Annesley, became Susanna Wesley. She taught her children to pray as soon as they could speak. Her family had family worship every night when they were not in church. Mrs. Wesley taught her children daily from morning until noon, and from two-to-five in the evening. She had her children read the bible, study the bible with study books, and read theology.
Two of Mrs. Wesley's sons were John and Charles Wesley. John Wesley spent at least two hours a day in private study, two hours a day in prayer, and would preach in the fields three or four hours a day. The Wesleys' best friend George Whitefield was known to study and pray eight hours a day. Another of George Whitefield's good friend, Jonathan Edwards, who wrote the famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", spent approximately thirteen hours a day in his study writing, praying, and studying.
The puritans were also known for their intense study habits, as they would study twelve to sixteen hours a day. One of the most prominent puritans John Owen would study eighteen to twenty hours a day. He would usually only sleep four hours a night. His works are in forty large volumes, and his commentary on the book of Hebrews alone is seven volumes.
The theologian Matthew Poole, who wrote a good commentary on the bible, would begin writing and studying at three or four in the morning, and study until about four in the afternoon.
