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Treasured Words on the Altar of the Urgent

What goes through your mind as it hits the pillow each night? Are you able to say with Job, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12), or is our closed Bible on the altar of the urgent?

If we’re honest with ourselves, often, in the craziness of life, instead of treasuring and applying more Scripture to a heart that needs it we shy away from time in the Word.

In the prelude of For the Love of God, D.A. Carson offers the following observation:

The challenge [of reading our Bibles] has become increasingly severe in recent years, owing to several factors. All of us must confront the regular sins of laziness or lack of discipline, sins of the flesh, and of the pride of life. But there are additional pressures. The sheer pace of life affords us many excuses for sacrificing the important on the altar of the urgent. The constant sensory input from all sides is gently addictive—we become used to being entertained and diverted, and it is difficult to carve out the space and silence necessary for serious and thoughtful reading of Scripture. More seriously yet, the rising biblical illiteracy in Western culture means that the Bible is increasingly a closed book, even to many Christians. As the culture drifts away from its former rootedness in a Judeo-Christian understanding of God, history, truth, right and wrong, purpose, judgment, forgiveness, and community, so the Bible seems stranger and stranger. For precisely the same reason, it becomes all the more urgent to read it and reread it, so that at least confessing Christians preserve the heritage and outlook of a mind shaped and informed by holy Scripture.

This, then, ought to be our response: we are to read systematically and repeatedly from the Word of God so that we might rejoice in Scripture. When we do, we remove God’s Word from the altar of the urgent and rightly call its contents, “treasured.”

If you’re struggling to get into the word, here are some ideas to give you the jump start you may need to dive back in:

  • It’s not to late to start up on a Bible reading plan. (You can even have them sent directly to your email or synced with your iCal).
  • Gather a group of friends from church and start reading the Bible out loud together.
  • Find a prayer partner and pray through Scripture together on a weekly basis.
  • Read through some of the Old Testament narratives. Sometimes the narrative genre is a bit easier to jump into.

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February 1, 2012 | Posted in: Prayer,Sanctification/Growth,The Bible | Author: Ted Cockle @ 9:32 am | 0 Comments »

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Praying in Response to God’s Word

by Nigel Benyon and Andrew Sach from Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word

Sometimes people say that prayer is a two-way conversation, where God speaks to us and we speak to God. But the Bible never uses the word “prayer” in this way. Prayer is simply when we talk to God.

Others think of reading the Bible as a conversation, in which God speaks to us, and we bring our own meanings to the text so that in some sense we find a voice, too. That’s not right, either.
We have a conversation when we hear God speak to us in the Bible and then we speak to him in prayer.

There’s a vivid description of that dynamic in Nehemiah 8–9. For seven days Ezra the scribe read the words of the Law of God (part of the Old Testament) to the people. As they heard God speaking to them, the people were deeply moved to sadness and to joy; there were tears as well as rejoicing and great feasting. And in response to what they heard, they poured out their hearts in prayer to God.

In our churches, though, the things that we share “for prayer” at the end of an evening’s Bible study are often completely unrelated to the passage we’ve been studying. While it’s true that nothing is too small to bring before our heavenly Father, it’s a shame when the tiny things—the health of someone’s neighbor’s dog, for instance—take over, and we forget the amazing truths that God has been speaking to us minutes before.

Get into the habit of praying these kinds of prayers:

  • “Sorry for X, which your Word has shown to be wrong in my life.”
  • “Thank you for Y, which you have shown us this evening.”
  • “Please, by your Spirit, give me power to change Z in response to what you have been saying.”

Learn more about Dig Deeper.

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January 26, 2012 | Posted in: Prayer,Spiritual Growth,The Bible | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

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So You Think You Can Understand God’s Word…

These past couple weeks we’ve been focusing on the importance, the motivation, and strategies for reading and meditating on God’s Word. While it is good to have motivation and strategies in place, they cannot be what we ultimately rely on. Nigel Benyon and Andrew Sach give some helpful insight from their book Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word.

We Can Understand the Word of God Only by the Spirit of God. Consider the following:

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him—” these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (1 Cor. 2:9–12).

We need to continually express our dependence on God for a right understanding of him and his ways. He is the one who grants insight (2 Tim. 2:7; Phil. 3:15). And so we must pray. Pray before you open the Bible. Pray when you get stuck and don’t understand. Pray again when you do understand it—say thank you! Pray, pray, pray!

Paul’s point is clear: we need God’s Spirit to understand God’s Word. Given that it was the Spirit who inspired it in the first place, that comes as no surprise. There’s another implication, though: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Someone who isn’t a Christian (i.e. the “natural person”) won’t be able fully to understand the Bible, no matter how many qualifications or degrees in theology he or she may have.

So while we may employ strategies to do our part (meditating, praying, using Bible study tools, etc), God is the one enabling us to actually understand. Learn more about Dig Deeper. It’s an excellent resource for Bible study principles.

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January 25, 2012 | Posted in: Prayer,Spiritual Growth,The Bible,The Holy Spirit | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

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The Book That Is Essential for Knowing God

Modified from Andy Naselli’s chapter in Don’t Call it a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day

The Bible is necessary for us to know, trust, and obey God.
You must somehow hear the Bible’s message—whether by reading it yourself or hearing someone else read or explain it—in order to become a Christian. “The sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17, NIV).

You must keep hearing the Bible’s message to grow as a Christian.
This means hearing it read and preached, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it, and applying it. A Christian needs the Bible like a human needs food and water. The need never goes away. That’s why Peter writes, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). That “pure spiritual milk” is “the living and abiding word of God,” “the good news” (1 Pet. 1:23–25). Can you say with Job, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12)?

The Bible is necessary for more than survival. It’s our only infallible guide to navigate life wisely because it reveals God’s will. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” the psalmist asked.

By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:9–11)

How Should We Then Read?
Of course, our high view of Scripture won’t matter much if we don’t actually read the Bible. But, you may ask, how should we read this holy book? In one sense we should read the Bible like any other book. It consists of different styles of literature that express truth according to the intention of its authors. But we shouldn’t read the Bible merely like any other book because it is unique. There’s no other book like it.

Because the Bible stands over us, it requires reverence, submission, and obedience. Because it is completely truthful, it requires trust. Because its nature contrasts sharply with our finiteness and sinfulness, it requires humble reading that is always open to correction. And because it reveals God and his ways, it requires careful, prayerful reading that situates passages within its grand story of God’s creation, our fall, Christ’s redemption, and the universe’s consummation.

Rejoice with John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, that the Bible is a priceless book—a book like no other:

Precious Bible! What a treasure Does the Word of God afford! All I want for life or pleasure, Food and med’cine, shield and sword:
Let the world account me poor, Having this I need no more.

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January 24, 2012 | Posted in: Sanctification/Growth,Spiritual Growth,The Bible | Author: Lindsay Tully @ 8:00 am | 1 Comment »

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A Bible-Infused Mind

Continuing our January series on the Bible, we posted earlier this week a video from Joe Thorn on the discipline of meditation. Joe encouraged readers that the discipline doesn’t require hours of free time every day to pour over Scripture. In fact, Scriptural meditation can be woven into our busy schedules—while waiting for a ride, at lunch, mowing the lawn, jogging, and even lying awake at night (Ps. 63:3; 119:48). This is a great way to develop what Kent Hughes and Carey Hughes call a Bible-Infused mind.

How do you prepare to meditate on God’s Word?

  • Select a text.
  • Write it on a card and slip it in your pocket (old school), or put it in your smart phone’s note app (new school).

How do you actually meditate on God’s Word?

  • Listen. Meditation begins with listening to the Word. This isn’t just hearing or reading—but really listening. It’s all too easy when reading the Bible just to read and not let it sink in. We need to absorb the Word like a sponge, not like a cloth that merely skims the surface. When God helps us to really hear what he is saying, the result is that we respond. For example, when this happened to King David (when God gave him an “open ear” to hear the Word), David responded: “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart”(Ps. 40:7–8). David was saying that he had read and heard God’s Word—and that now it was guiding his whole life. This should be the way it is for us.
  • Murmur. As Psalm 1 opens with a blessing on the man who “meditates day and night” on the law (v. 2), the word the psalmist uses for “meditates” is a word that means to mutter—which St. Augustine translated with the catchy phrase, “on his law he chatters day and night.” From this we understand that biblical meditation requires the use of both mind and mouth. Personally, this means that (along with the regular reading of the Bible) we must choose especially meaningful passages of Scripture to reverently murmur. When we prayerfully, slowly, and repeatedly murmur the text, we engages the eyes and ears and mouth—so that the truth of Scripture drills deep in our heart, maximizing our understanding and devotion.

Where do you start?

Larger portions of Scripture, especially some of the famous texts, are tailor made for meditation. For example:

  • The Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1–17)
  • The New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34)
  • The Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1–12)
  • The Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13)

Or you can meditate on NT passages about Christ:

  • John 1:1–4
  • Col. 1:15–18
  • Heb.1:1–3
  • Phil. 2:5–8

Or go to Jesus’s parables, Psalms, Proverbs, the sayings of the book of James. Pull out your card (or smart phone) in those spare moments and murmur it, pray it, mutter it, memorize it, chatter it, sing it, share it.

This content adapted from Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by Kent Hughes and Carey Hughes.

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January 19, 2012 | Posted in: The Bible,The Christian Mind | Author: Angie Cheatham @ 8:00 am | 0 Comments »

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