Is your point that we should not study the Scriptures?

2 Tim. 2:15: The word "study" in this passage does not mean to pursue knowledge by reading, etc., but rather it is the Greek verb "SPOUDAZO" which means "to make haste, to exert one's self, endeavor, and give diligence" (Thayer). It involves much more than just taking in knowledge.
The Liberty Bible Commentary states, "Study (Gk. SPOUDAZO) is not the normal word you think of as a student but a word used of a workman meaning 'give diligence,' 'endeavor,' or 'exert oneself.'" This is the reason the word "workman" is used later in this same verse.
This Greek word is used ten times in the New Testament and this is the only time it is translated "study." It was translated "forward" (Gal. 2:10); "endeavoring" (Eph. 4:3); "endeavored" (1 Thes. 2:17); "endeavor" (2 Pet. 1:15); "do. . .diligence" (2 Tim. 4:9, 21); "diligent" (Ti. 3:12, 2 Pet 3:14); and "labour" (Heb. 4:11).

The most common way this verse is interpreted is to say that if we study well, God approves of us and what we have done. It is more correctly interpreted that through our study, we prove to ourselves that we have been approved or accepted of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The English word "shew" or "show" was translated from the Greek word "PARISTEMI" which means, "to stand beside, i.e. to exhibit, proffer, (specifically) recommend, (figuratively) substantiate..." (Strong). It is through our study that we substantiate or exhibit that we are already accepted in Christ (Eph. 1:6).

Studying doesn't make us more accepted by God, nor does our lack of study make us less accepted by God. By our study we will be made more aware that God has already accepted us and our lack of study will make us less aware of that.
It is true that anyone who doesn't know the Word of God will come to shame. This verse is speaking about all sense of shame being driven from us by an understanding of our righteous position in Christ. This is the right use of the Word of God.

Paul is telling Timothy to study God's Word to discover his freedom from shame. That is always the proper use of God's Word. If an individual's study of God's Word produces condemnation instead of freedom from shame, then the Word of God is not being rightly divided.
Rightly dividing means to correctly dissect the Word of God. The New International Version translates it as, ". . .who correctly handles the word of truth." The Amplified Bible says, ". . .correctly analyzing and accurately dividing-rightly handling and skillfully teaching-the Word of Truth." There is a right and wrong way to interpret God's Word. You can preach a truth from a certain passage and yet it may not be the truth the verse is proclaiming. This is not handling the Word of God correctly.

The context of this statement is speaking about studying the Word of God for the purpose of proving to ourselves our righteous position in Christ. Once we comprehend and understand our acceptance in Christ, it will lead us to rightly divide all scripture in the light of this truth.

This is not a discussion about miracles but rather about recognizing Jesus and why those very well read Teachers of the Law and Pharisees did not.
As you can see, I think we can draw a parallel between them and "some" believers today.

There are Believers who though Saved, do not recognize Jesus or the voice of the Spirit of God because they are myopically fixated on the Letter of the Law rather than attuned to the hearing of the Spirit. This fixation causes them to see scriptures in isolated contexts, not understanding that the Bible is really about one story needing to be read in the context of that one story..... Redemption!

Therefore their understanding often times is not in context with the whole counsel of God sometimes not even in context with the passage or chapters from which they have extracted it.

It's sad that one can be so well read and still be so lacking in understanding of what one is reading.
Truly what Jesus quoted of the prophet Isaiah very aptly describes your plight.

so that, "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" Mark 4:12

A Holy Spirit inspired reading of John 17 particularly John 17:20 reveals that what Jesus prayed for the disciples He prayed for ALL believers...this is basic doctrine to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying and whom allows the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of the passages in the bible

John 17:20,12
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jimmy I love being the one to tell you this so I will do so with joy.... if we are one with the Father just as Jesus is one with the Father, as Jesus prayed, and if God answered Jesus prayer which I'm sure you know He did....
...then we certainly have "access" to the same things as Jesus, just as promised the 12, just as He gave the 70, just as He gave the 120, just as the Holy Spirit empowered all the people throughout all the epistles both name and unnamed, who were pastors,teachers elders prophets and evangelists

Jimmy I hate to tell you this but the world will not believe just because we are well read. They will believe only if we glorify God just as Jesus glorified Him which is why Jesus prayer included all those who believe because of the message of the 12

Now HEAR this  

The Holy Spirit Saving you and regenerating your heart IS A MIRACLE!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you IS A MIRACLE!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you IS GOD!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you IS NOT DORMANT!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you IS THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you is HE WHO GIFTS YOU AS HE WILLS!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you is ONLY LIMITED AS YOU LIMIT HIM!
The Holy Spirit abiding in you is HE WHO TEACHES WHAT THE SCRIPTURES MEAN!
The Holy Spirit abiding is you is ONLY LIMITED BY YOUR LIMITED PERCEPTION OF WHO HE IS AND WHY HE HAS BEEN GIVEN!

Now ...

The reason the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees didn't recognize Jesus

and

the reason you think Jesus limited His Gifts to only 12 men are pretty much one and the same

Because dear Jimmy .....
....you do not recognize the Holy Spirit abiding in you IS GOD,
that it is He who has promised to teach you and lead you,
it is He who will guide you into the Truth of what the scripture is saying,

It is He, God the Holy Spirit who is the healer
Its is He, God the Holy Spirit, who is the ultimate teacher of the Word
It is He God the Holy Spirit who works miracles and glorifies God the Father and God the Son yesterday today and forever for He is God and changes NOT!
It is HE who activates, motivates and inspires men to do great exploits that in turn glorify God here on earth and cause others to want to join the Household of Faith and share in the inheritance we have obtained through our adoption as sons  

Therefore instead of looking through the eyes of tradition, religious class-ism and legalism erroneously buying into the tradition of elevating 12 flawed men and a flawed murderous Pharisee who became Apostle to the Gentiles as some sort of special supernatural divine people who had something the rest of us don't such as and according to the traditions of the early Roman Catholics, which did and still does deify selected men according to the wisdom of man as if those they designate have some sort of aspect or attribute of divinity not available to the rest of us or  more than others of us who are of like precious faith as well as they....

...in effect ROBBING GOD OF THE GLORY ONLY DUE HIM by making yourself a respecter of persons when God clearly is not.

AND

Instead of wrongly assuming that the POWER of the GOD THE H0LY SPIRIT died with those 12 dead men and Paul ....
 
You should pray that in ALL of your extensive reading, YOU....by the Power of God the Holy Spirit abiding in YOU  BEGIN TO hear the voice of God

So that you don't continue to waddle in the same confusion as the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees....
....NOT RECOGNIZING GOD IN YOUR MIDST, THE WONDERS OF GOD and THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST THE HOLY SPIRIT ABIDING IN YOU!

But even more importantly
even if you refuse to acknowledge the Presence and Power of God residing in you, even if you refuse to receive for yourself every spiritual blessing, every good and perfect gift, your like precious faith and being a partaker of God's Divine Nature....
even if you refuse EVERYTHING God has freely Given All who Believe....

Please at least....

...Pray and ask God to give you the Grace not to MOCK those who do    

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:7

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Peter 1:1

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:13

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:4

And Jesus said to him, "'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9:23

Why he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. Ephesians 4:8


Acts 2:17,18  / Joel 2:28

“‘In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Excellent dear brother....manna to you!!

Well Jimmy, to end on some kind of good note....

.... I must say there's certainly no shortage of visual imagery on your part!
 

Have a great weekend everyone!!! 

It's highly debatable that there is much listening to each other happening on this thread.

So...not to bore people with yet another long post (which I think most people have a tendency to skip over anyway), I just wanted to add an unpopular reminder that it is Jesus (and His specific teachings found in the New Testament) that is the "word of God". The bible never gave this title to itself (in its entirety) nor makes these claims. It's just our modern MISunderstanding that places Jesus on the same level with everything else in the bible.

Please guys, can we stop demoting the life and teachings of Christ to just another part of the book that makes up "the word".

Everything he said and did stands out and beyond anything anyone else in the entire bible said or did. And when viewed in that light, I suspect that a great deal of confusion about which parts of the bible we should most seriously attempt to follow or live out in our own lives will become much clearer.

It will also help sort out who is just following their "bellies" (emotions and subjective "Jesus' " of our own private imaginations) and who is trying to follow the clear and objective teachings Jesus gave us.

And once again...Jesus did not teach or reiterate the "law". His teachings are quite different from what you will find in the Jewish "law". If he was just simply repeating the "law" then why on earth do we suppose he got into so much trouble with the "law keepers" who had him executed?

So if we want a relationship with Jesus, then maybe we should give another look at what He expected of us in order for the relationship to work?  "If you love me, you will obey me" and "IF you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love."

Hey Thankfull,

Yeah, what you've just said is pretty much implied and understood regarding following Jesus.

The problem, however, is that even though Jesus wants us, as his body, to actually allow Him to do the things through us that He commanded us to do, we often react in some kind of a spiritual paralysis where we are too concerned that others will say we're trying to "work our way to heaven" if we get caught even TRYING to obey Jesus out of love for Him and others.

This more often than not translates to mean that we have almost no intention of ever doing what he taught us.

Take this simple command for example:

"Sell what you have and give to the poor"

No where in this teaching does Jesus imply that he has any concerns about us tooting our own horns by simply obeying him, especially since he also taught that we were to "give our alms (gifts to the poor) in secret". No, God will certainly get all the glory for this if we follow Christ, the question that remains is...

WILL WE follow Christ?

Hey Thankfull,

Yeah, what you've just said is pretty much implied and understood regarding following Jesus.

The problem, however, is that even though Jesus wants us, as his body, to actually allow Him to do the things through us that He commanded us to do, we often react in some kind of a spiritual paralysis where we are too concerned that others will say we're trying to "work our way to heaven" if we get caught even TRYING to obey Jesus out of love for Him and others.

This more often than not translates to mean that we have almost no intention of ever doing what he taught us.

Take this simple command for example:

"Sell what you have and give to the poor"

No where in this teaching does Jesus imply that he has any concerns about us tooting our own horns by simply obeying him, especially since he also taught that we were to "give our alms (gifts to the poor) in secret". No, God will certainly get all the glory for this if we follow Christ, the question that remains is...

WILL WE follow Christ?