I was seventeen years old when I started reading the Bible for myself. Here's the way I did it: during class one day, as an act of rebellion (choosing not to listen to the teacher) I opened up a Bible to the book of 1st Corinthians. I read almost the entire book that day, and it totally messed me up. Reading Corinthians, I discovered something I never knew – the Bible was for messed-up people like me. That day began a journey I'm still on – of discovering what's in the Bible and how it applies to me.
A tiny book by Michael Card called The Walk was extremely helpful in helping me listen to the text of scripture. In it he says, "When it comes to listening to God speak, we must always begin with the Word of God, His clearest and most authoritative voice. But, as in all listening, we must learn to allow the other Person to speak." The way I hear that is that we can read Christian literature all day and all night. We can listen to Christian music. We can go to Church. We can do anything and everything to try to get a word from the Lord. But the starting point is the scripture.
This means we have to be listeners. Often we have so much to say, and we are so bad at listening. I hear my childhood band teacher's voice in my head, "Empty barrels always rattle." Many times I find that the people who have the most to say are the ones who have the hardest time being still and quiet before God (I'm one of those people). I know how hard it is to listen to the text because, when I listen to the text, it usually means I'm going to have to be still, and then I'll have to do something about what I've heard. Many well-intentioned people come to scripture not to look for a response required of their lives, but for theological or doctrinal information. Yet, as Erwin McManus says in his book An Unstoppable Force, "To know is not necessarily to do. When the construct applied to the Bible is missiological, you engage the Bible to discover the response required of your life." I don't think scripture was meant to be information for us. I think it was meant to be a means of formation. Information goes to the head; formation goes to the heart and hands. McManus continues, "The Bible was written so that we might respond to the truth and voice of God."
Perhaps this will be helpful for you:
1. When you pray, let your mind wander. Where it stops, that is where you should pray.
2. When you open scripture, look for the word that strikes you most, and examine why that word strikes you.
3. Keep a journal. After you've read one of the gospels, a proverb, the Psalms, or whatever you choose, write down all your thoughts and questions on it.
4. Take some time to listen to what the text has said to you.
5. Do something about it.
Lately I've been going through the book of Matthew in a new translation called The Voice. I came to Matthew 4:17 ". . . Turn away from your sin; turn toward God. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Again, I was reminded that God is speaking all around, and the beginning place is His word. If indeed, the kingdom is at hand, this means God's voice is as close as my hand. Therefore, I must listen and use the word to cut the sin out of my life and daily turn toward God with my head, heart, and hands.
Tool:
Memorize scripture with ten scripture songs from your very own youth pastor. Once you've committed them to memory, pray using the words of scripture and see what happens.
David Achata
David, I would like to suggest a metaphor that I believe encompasses what you've just said. The way we often approach the Bible is - like we were taught to approach geometry proofs in 10th grade (or earlier if you're a math whiz-kid!)
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I'm still learning how to navigate these blogs (now I know that pushing "enter" too many times doesn't just move you to another line!) . . . As I was saying, in Geometry you learn a process for solving proofs that sounds alot like solving a mystery/crime (or defending a doctrine): (1) create a theorem (supposition) that needs to be proved; (2) State the givens - what info can you find to help you construct your "proof"; (3) State what you're going to prove (i.e. a doctrine or belief); (4) State the proof - through a series of step-by-step logically deduced statements. Doesn't the whole Geometry Proof system look alot like using the Bible as "proof texting"? What I hear you saying (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that we need to come to the Bible in another way where instead of us "using" the Bible for our own purposes we allow it to rule over us and "use" us for God's purposes. A resource that has been very helpful to me in this painstaking process of learning a "new way" of faithfulness to God's spoken word is "Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation" by Robert Mulholland. A good book to open wider the Good Book.
ReplyDeletejodie
Yes Jodie! Thank you for responding. I'm saying "Let the bible use you." That's a lot harder than "using it" for our purposes. Wow, what would happen if we let it use us?
ReplyDeleteisent jesus very cool man all my life i was searching for fufliment i found Him HE really is the thing that everone is missing no lets show Him to the world.........Kyle Plemons
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