Read Your Bibles Personally

Read The Bible Personally: We should approach the scriptures as we have already said, with, prayer, and with all our mind engaged. Now, I want us to get the meaning from what we read. This is not as easy as we may always want it to be. The Bible can admittedly be confusing. So we as Christians have become accustomed to listening to great preaching on the radio, (this scares me as church folk listen to the best communicators in the country all week on their radios and then have to come hear me), doing good Bible studies (Beth Moore, Lifeway), reading good study Bibles (Life App, NLTSB, ESVSB), and all of this is great. I whole heartedly recommend it. But, sometimes through all of this we miss understanding God’s word on our own. There is no greater thrill, that studying, praying, and rereading scripture until you get the meaning and the application in your life. I am not knocking learning from others, hey I am a teacher and a pastor, but boy the joy of having the Holy Sprit of God illuminate you is amazing!

How do you do this? Read, read, read, and read some more. I recommend as an exercise prayerfully read one of Paul’s epistles daily for a month. The whole thing over and over for a month, meditating and contemplating what is said and how it applies to you. Also, maybe don’t use your study bible. Let God speak to you directly through his word. We as evangelicals believe in the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture. Meant to be understood and you can understand it!

Also, wrestle with Scripture. Jacob wrestled God and would not let go, until God blessed him. Take God’s Word and refuse to go forward in your reading or put it down until God has blessed you! Don’t be afraid, God wants you to understand it and deepen your walk with Him. But, remember Jacob got a limp from his wrestling with God, he was forever changed. You just might find that in your wrestling with God through His Word you will be forever changed as well.

Lastly, experience the joy of illumination! I love kissing my wife. She is hot and wonderful. I would take nothing for the joy of kissing my wife. She is mine, this is what God gave her to me for. But, imagine, if I let some other guy kiss her for me and then he tell me how great it is kissing her. I know this is getting odd quick, but you see if you solely rely on others for your Biblical understanding and hearing from God, you are missing the intimacy that God wants to have with you. God wants you to engage His word personally. Don’t let me sit in my study and do it all for you! Do it yourself, your privilege, your right, your responsibility.

So, grab your Bibles and don’t do until God speaks to you! Pastor Phillip

Read Your Bibles With All Your Mind!

Read the Bible utilizing your entire mind. The Bible is an expression of the mind of God, to you and me. This is huge, God infinite and holy, coming to us sinful and finite. We have become very used to religion being emotional. I was convicted, I was blown away by worship, I have deep sense of peace, joy, happiness, so often times we talk about God and use out emotions. This is right, unemotional religion is a little scary and can be indicative of a hard heart. Many people speak of knowing God in their heart and say He speaking to them in their heart. God can does do this, but be careful as Jeremiah 17:9 says "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

So, I believe there is a place for real hard study of Scripture. We cannot forget that in Deuteronomy 6:5 we are commanded to “love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.” This takes time, energy, effort, and sacrifice to engage ourselves in the understanding of God’s word and then subsequently God Himself. We give our minds to work, to investing for the future, to understanding our spouse, to diagnosing problems at church, to thinking about the failures of others, so use your head for something more than a hat rack. Put all your mental faculties to work learning about God (some of more faculties that others). Think and study God, keep a journal, get a good study Bible to help, get in a Sunday school class, and learn about God.

My head hurts, Pastor Phillip

Read Your Bibles Prayerfully!

Read your Bibles prayerfully. This is a crucial lesson that I have had a hard time learning. Being in college, I wanted to read my Bible and learn it. I needed ammunition for late night theological debates. Now, I did learn the stories of Scriptures, I learned some proof-texts for various theological positions, but on the whole the connection with God through His word was not there. It was kind of depressing, I was learning God’s word, but felt that my learning was not leading to more loving of God. Then seminary did not help as the Bible became textbook, it was homework. Again, I learned a lot, I enjoy learning the Bible, but learning that is not leading to loving is missing the point of the word of God. I felt I was living 1 Corinthains 8:1 “Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.” I was not being built up by the love of God, regardless of my ever increasing comprehension of the Biblical text.
Then I found out how to prayerfully read the Scriptures, not so much found some secret, but just slowed down and started praying as I read. I started to read and let God speak to me through His word and then I would speak back. As I read I would things that caused me to rejoice over the God we serve. Then I would look for things that I need to repent of and there are tons that I had to pray about there. Lastly I would look for request to be made on my behalf or on the behalf of others. This little system of Rejoicing, Repenting, Requesting, greatly aided my Bible reading, understanding and application. (This is not original with me; I got from some magazine I read). It also helped a struggling prayer life. I had always read my Bible first, usually for 5 chapters a day, and then prayed a little prayer. I have now found that through this little method I was hearing, speaking, and enjoying God like never before. So, read your Bibles prayerfully. Also, does anyone else have a study method that they would like to share?

Praying you all learn the power and beauty of hearing God speak through His word! Pastor Phillip