GOALS

To prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. Ephesians 4:12

The prince of Grenada, an heir to the Spanish crown, was sentenced to life in solitary confinement in Madrid's ancient prison. The dreadful, dirty, and dreary nature of the place earned it the name, "The Place of the Skull." Everyone knew that once you were in, you would never come out alive. The prince was given one book to read the entire time: the Bible.
 

With only one book to read, he read it hundreds and hundreds of times. The book became his constant companion. After 33 years of imprisonment, he died. When they came to clean out his cell, they found some notes he had written using nails to mark the soft stone of the prison walls. The notations were of this sort: Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse of the Bible; Ezra 7:21 contains all the letters of the alphabet except the letter J; the ninth verse of the eighth chapter of Esther is the longest verse in the Bible; no word or name more than six syllables can be found in the Bible.
 

This individual spent 33 years of his life studying what some have described as the greatest book of all time. Yet he could only glean trivia. From all we know, he never made any religious or spiritual commitment to Christ. He simply became an expert at Bible trivia.

Our goal at Mercydrops.org and Veritas Christian Network is not that you would gain Bible trivia, but that you would gain Bible Truth. Today we are faced with so many counterfeits- much  of which is emotion based. If we do not know the Truth of God's Word, we will be easily led into a "if it feels good- believe it!" mentality.  Is studying God's Word easy? A lot of people like to make Bible study sound as though it is easy. It is not. It takes a great deal of effort to understand this text, and even more to understand how it applies to our lives.
 

We like to think that when we study the Bible, it's like getting a shot of spiritual adrenaline. It gives a spiritual high. Studying the Bible is much more like taking vitamins. You gulp down a couple of vitamins in the morning, but no wave of energy flows through your body. You take the vitamins because they build you up. They protect you against the diseases in the environment. In the long pull, they make you strong.

At Mercydrops we're not into the business of what does this Scripture mean to you or to you or to you, (that's relativism!), but what does this Scripture MEAN? And then learning from that Scripture so that we might be strengthened in our faith. 
 

You can help this ministry continue by supporting it through word of mouth- We'll soon have some cards that you can request which will promote the online Bible classes at Veritas Virtual Academy (mercydrops.org)  You can pass these cards on to others and it will have a two-fold purpose:
1. It will encourage them to grow spiritually through taking the courses, and
2. It will help the ministry grow so that we in turn can reach even more through this medium. 
You can also help us by saving one dollar a week for each of the eight weeks of class, and then donating that 8 dollars to the ministry.  This will help us to continue to cover our expenses and improve our classes, tools and resources that we offer.  Our goal is to make this quality Biblical education that does not spoon feed you, but challenges you to grow in the faith. We're into Body Building at Mercydrops- building up the Body of Christ, and we're glad that you are committed to the long pull.

Colossians 2:6-8
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.


Week 5 lessons are ready at http://www.mercydrops.org

Sources:
Haddon Robinson, "The Wisdom of Small Creatures," Preaching Today, Tape No. 93.
Leonard Sweet, Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture (Group Publishing, 1999), p. 59;