Responsibility to Read God's Word, and a brief mention of the storyline of scripture

 

Reading the Bible can feel overwhelming at times, if you’ve never done so before. It’s big, and it seems like there are a lot of different stories that, if you don’t know how to read scripture, feel disconnected. Not to mention, we live in a skeptical culture that questions the validity of the Bible entirely. It’s a book of mere myths, we’re told, that maybe you can glean some valuable life lessons from, about how to love the people around you and get along best in the world. Or, there are some hard core atheists who insist the Bible is actually harmful to read. Then, you have some Christians who actually read the book and talk about how it’s God’s Word, actually, and has the power to transform your life! So which is it, myth, harm, or transformative power of God?  And how do you put it all together, if you’ve never read it before, without feeling completely lost or overwhelmed?

To answer that first question best, I suggest you read the Bible for yourself. That’s the only way you’ll be able to discern what it actually says apart from what society says about it. There are plenty of books that can verify the historicity of the Bible. Obviously, you cannot re-create a miracle and so cannot prove it actually happened. But you can look at the ripple effects of the miracle as evidence of what took place. As to whether the Bible is harmful to read, it seems only harmful to proud sinners who do not want to acknowledge their true stance before God and want to live the way they see fit best. The Bible will offend everyone at some point, because it calls us all sinners, and often we love our sin and don’t want to let go of it at all. Whether it has transformative power can be validated by people throughout history all over the world, but the question at hand is, whether it has the power to transform your life as you read it. At which point I ask, well, how are you reading it? What is your posture towards this book? Are you reading it for merely intellectual purposes, or are you open to allowing something greater than yourself to speak to you through it? Because the Bible is no ordinary book, and it does claim to be the very words of God! And God’s word does not return void.

 Here are my suggestions, first, you need to read the Bible every day consistently to be open to hearing it’s message. Second, before you begin to read, say a prayer. Maybe you’re a skeptic and don’t even know if you believe in prayer, or you choose to pray to other gods at the moment. That’s okay. You can pray something like, “If there is a God, and you are the Christian God, would you reveal yourself to me through this word as I’m reading, and help me understand it, because it’s confusing and overwhelming to me.” If I had to start somewhere, I’d start with the Gospel of John. Getting Jesus right is most important, as the Bible is centered around Him.

Don’t give up when you come to parts you don’t see or understand. I have a friend who was in a Bible study with me, and after a few weeks stopped coming, and then confessed to me she stopped reading her Bible entirely, because she didn’t understand everything in it. The truth is, even the smartest theologian is going to be stumped at times with God’s Word, so not reading it at all is an attack from satan to keep you from reading it and being transformed into the likeness of Christ. You think satan wants you reading the Bible in a posture of humility and openness to what God might say to you? Especially when you see from Ephesians 6 that the Bible is the sword, one of the only two offensive I weapons we have against him. He will do anything to keep you from being in the word. Don’t let him win.

Now… here is a tip that I hope will help you as you read the Bible. I already mentioned the Bible is centered around Jesus Christ, who He is, and the role He has played since the foundation of the world. When you understand that all of the Bible actually points to Jesus, it unlocks a mystery in your reading.

The Bible can be read with four different arcs of story within a grander narrative. Those points are, Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. As you start to see each of those fleshed out in the smaller stories you read, you understand how they fit into the bigger revelation of the Bible.

Now, I’ll flesh out these points more in future posts, I don’t want this post to become too long to keep your attention. I just want to encourage you to be in the Word. Some of you are wondering right now, how will I make time to read at all?  My plate is full as it is, I don’t have enough time in the day to do all I need to do… there are a million reasons you could think of to prevent you from reading yourself. At which point I would have a few thoughts. First of all, what are your priorities? Carving out time for reading scripture is meant to be a blessing to your soul. As you allow the Word to minister to your own heart, it will empower you to minister to those around you. There is nowhere else you can turn to for words of Life.

Second of all, we live in a technological age where you can download an app for free on your phone and have scripture read out loud to you. So, even if you are claiming you cannot take time to read yourself, you can take advantage of time you have when you can listen. It may be in the car on the way to work, or waiting to pick up your kids from school in the carpool line, it may be while you’re cooking dinner, it may be while you’re at the gym working out.

There is no excuse at this point for not reading or listening to scripture. I don’t know that I care as much about how you consume it, as much as I care that you actually DO consume it. Please do not neglect this book! It is the only book that can transform your life completely. It is the only true message of salvation and hope for humanity. And if you can read, you do need to read it some every day. You are blessed beyond what you can imagine if you can read and study this book. It only takes 55 hours to read through the Bible, and 75 hours to listen to the Bible. If you can binge watch Netflix and spend however many hours people spend watching their favorite TV shows, you have no excuse to not be allotting time to read the Bible. I’m one of those weirdos who wishes we could smash every TV screen that exists, but even if you have a more accepting view of TV allowance, if you are consuming a steady diet of XYZ show and neglecting your time in the Word, you are missing out on the greater blessing.