3 Ways to Approach the Bible

When my dad died 10 years ago, we gave mom a nice picture of the sun playing hide-and-seek over an ocean horizon. I took the picture myself and it wasn’t a bad shot, thank you very much. On the bottom of the frame we attached a scripture to give her comfort during seasons of loneliness and fear.

The picture still hangs in her house.

I was looking around my home recently and noticed I, too, have a lot of scriptures hanging around.

When I visit other Christian’s homes, I see the same thing.

We like to hang scripture on our walls.

This isn’t a bad thing, but I think we also hang scripture on the walls of our heart.

These passages are usually the length of a tweet, proving that God invented Twitter. They’re short and easily digestible.  But we don’t really memorize them. We just kind of have a general idea of what they mean.

I’m concerned we’re living our lives on the handful of pithy words hung on the caverns of our heart without realizing that the Word has become flesh and dwells among us. He wants to have relationship with us. The Word will speak through the word.  He reveals–like a bride on her wedding night having reserved her glory for the one she loves.  God doesn’t just want us to feel good when we read his word, he wants to give us life.

Here’s the scary thing.  I think Satan will gladly let you hang scripture verses on your heart as long as you don’t get to know the Author. It’s not the words that save you, it’s The Word.

So what do we do about this?

• Ingest It. Water is good for laundering. It washes away dirt and offers a thorough cleansing. But a parched wanderer is never satisfied with a bath. Survival demands ingested water. So too with the Bible.  Reading showers the mind, but ingesting it heals the blistered soul.

• Learn It.Part of the ingesting process is learning scripture.  Learn about the various authors, the audiences they were writing to, the situations they were writing from, and their purposes for writing.  You’ll discover that the original hearers were no different from you and me; and you’ll hear God’s voice speak just like the Ephesians.  Yes, some take this to an extreme and focus on the endless details instead of what God wants to speak, but such a problem we should all overcome.Sometimes you might want help in learning. Gateway Equip can help with this. Yes, I know you’re busy.  Yes, I know you may not live nearby. Yes, I know you want online classes.  I’m working on it. Equip classes provide in-depth relevant teaching on applying scriptural principles to daily life, helping you to hear God’s voice. Sign up for a class.  You know you want to.

• Discuss It. Talk to other people about the things you’re seeing in scripture.  Don’t worry about being wrong.  I imagine all of us are wrong about something in the Bible. When you discuss the word, the Word shows up and contributes His own voice to the conversation. Everyone walks away with a deeper sense of relationship with each other and with God.

How do you make the Bible come alive in your life? Leave a comment below or you can click here.

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