I have been away from the Internet world for a little while since I have been working and spending some time with family. So I am excited to give you the second to the last part of this little mini-series. I hope you have enjoyed the series so far and I believe that this one and one more will be beneficial for your relationship with the Bible.
I have heard many people talk about writing in their Bible’s from both a positive and a negative perspective. Some feel that it is defacing God’s Word when we mark our Bible’s and others feel its a critical part of Bible reading. I believe that a dirty Bible equals a clean life and a clean Bible equals a dirty life. Now I hope you don’t take that to an extreme although I do believe there is truth in the statement. For me, I can hardly stand reading my Bible without a writing utensil. I love to mark in my Bible what I am reading and keep track of dates and special occasions as the years go by. For this portion of my series I have no scripture to build this upon only personal preference.
Many use High-lighters, pencils, pens and markers or anything else they can get their hands on. I personally have come to be fond of ball point pens that don’t bleed onto the following pages. I have found that Highlighters tend to leak over through the other pages as well as fountain pens. My Bible has what’s called onion pages so they are very thin. Marking my Bible is a very important thing to me, so much so that when I say its hard to read it without one, I am not kidding around. Before I read I will look everywhere for one and go to great lengths to find one. Its very important to me to keep track of what I’m reading and have some way to chart it and place it in areas that I can find again. I most always use along with a pen my computer. Its a rare day that I read my Bible without my computer near by so that none of my thoughts get lost. I have built several files and files under files of thoughts, ideas and seeds for the present and the future. I have a collection of things that I have discovered through the written Word that have become precious to me. i would encourage you if you don’t already to start witting in your Bible and marking the things that you read day in and day out. The thing I most often do when I’m marking my Bible is circle the thing that stood out to me. Then I draw a line from that circle to the index or the margin and I start writing. I draw the line from the subject to the circle so I can connect my thought to the passage. I also write the current date at the end of whatever chapter I stop on. So if I read Act chapter one, two and three I would put today’s date at the start of Chapter four. I do this so I know where I left off which enables me to pick back up again where I stopped. have found over the years that this helps me realize how long I’ve been away from the Word and challenges me to remain faithful to it.
Once again, these thoughts are my own, and only suggestions to you as you build your relationship with the Holy Scriptures. In the last part of this series I will cover how I read my Bible.
Often times when we approach the Bible or the place of prayer its difficult to get our minds to slow down so that we can interact with the Spirit in us to comprehend the Word. I have found the art of slowing down to be vital in my relationship with the Bible and prayer. Not that I am always able to slow my mind down but over the years I have learned to fix my mind and heart upon the Spirit in such a way that I am no longer thinking about all the things I have to do today and I can be a student before the Creator. There are a few things that I do, and a couple of scriptures that I use to do this. We want to make sure that when we read we don’t treat the Bible like any other book, or just a good story. We want the Spirit of the 66 books to break into our minds in order to transform our hearts, thus changing how we act through our bodies. This is the Word’s purpose in humanity. The role you and I play, is getting our minds to a place where they slow down enough that the Word starts to wash us on the inside.
Psalms 131 and verse 2 says;
“Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
This scripture doesn’t say that his soul just calmed itself, or someone else calmed it, but that he calmed and quited his soul. Some people have told me that this is new age behavior but I strongly disagree. In this fast paced society God hasn’t changed his Nature. It takes time for you and I to unwind before Him so that He can communicate with us. Before I read the Bible I take a certain amount of time and I lay hands on my Bible and I begin to talk with the Spirit. Quietly, I acknowledge Him, I talk with Him like a person. I wait on Him and bring my mind into subjection to Him so that when I read its not in vain but actually produces something in me each time. This takes a little bit sometimes but I try not to move on from here until my mind has slowed down so that I can take in what I’m about to read. I say to The Spirit, “the letter kills but You bring life! Bring life into my mortal body now.” In this process praying in the Spirit if you are Spirit filled is another way that the Spirit breaks into my mind helping me to set my gaze on Him.
I believe that if you are able to slow down your mind in such a way that is allows the Spirit to impart from The Word that your time in the Bible will drastically change. This process begun from a sincere desire to grow in the scriptures and to have a life rooted in the Word of God. I hope that you are able to glean a thought or two and they help you in your own journey. A few more thoughts to come.
I once heard someone say that the Bible is like the alphabet. There are 26 total letters in the English alphabet from A to Z. The alphabet is so complex that after all these years we still haven’t penned all the words buts its also so simple that toddlers can put together words and sentences using those same 26 letters. Reading the Bible is similar to this analogy. There are complex sides and simple sides and both are important to our journey of being acquainted with The Word. I want to begin a short journal of thoughts that are more practical then complex when it comes to reading the Word. Things that I believe others can glean from and use in their own daily Bible reading plans.
A Scripture that I have held close to me when regarding reading the Bible and having a devotional life is found in Mark 1:35. It says;
“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed.”
This passage is profound not only for this one moment that we see Jesus doing this in the morning but understanding that this is His lifestyle throughout the Gospels . People often say to me ” my quite time is best in the evening just right before I go to bed”. I would say there are times that I have to do this too, but I think there is a better and more effective way to live a constant devotional life before God. The Bible has lots to say about giving God the first fruits in many different areas. Proverbs 3:9, Romans 11:16 and many others. I believe that the start of the day is the best part of the day that we can give to God. We want to give Him the best part not the left over part. Just think, who knows what your day will entail, who knows what things are awaiting you, and having read that morning you now have a mind that has been in the word, and a Spirit who is sharp in you to help you through anything that might come your way.
I make it a point to do virtually nothing in the morning before I have read my Bible and spent time in prayer. I don’t get on the computer and check email, I don’t return text messages, voice mails or make any calls. I wait to shower and get ready for the day. The reason I do this is because the time I start on any of these things, I become so distracted that I often have no time left for my devotional life before I have to run out the door to begin my day. The scripture in Romans chapter chapter 11 and verse 16 says
“For if the first fruits is holy the lump also is holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches”.
This passage can be used in our devotional life as well as its being used for the Jewish nation. It says that if we give our first fruits or the beginning of our day to God that the rest of our day will also be Holy. If we can give our morning to God He likens that to our roots and through those roots we can effect the entire tree. I know many have early days, and long weeks, but I challenge you to set aside time for God and The Bible in the morning, before anything else takes place. Giving thefirst fruits of our day to God.
Continuing on from the Recent post about the Spirit and The Word I want to share some more thoughts on this topic. God has been faithful to me over the past 8 years to help me maintain a healthy Bible reading plan. It hasn’t always been exciting but I have tried to give myself to becoming acquainted with the Word in such a way that it would change my internal structure. There have been difficult seasons in this journey where its been dry and then there has been intense seasons where everywhere I read something is being unlocked. The Bible says that not all who run the race win, but run in such a way that you finish. Reading the Bible is more like a marathon than a sprint. It can’t be something that we start today and quit tomorrow because its not working, or its boring. Something I have to tell God is “its not Him who’s boring, its me”. The same principles of weather and seasons can be applied to our devotional life in the Bible. We don’t die during winter or quit on life, we keep going no matter how dark it gets, and before we know it spring comes. The same thing is true with the Bible, we read today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives. Mike Bickle challenges people to lock into a ten year plan. He would say don’t complain, don’t whine for ten years of reading the Bible and after that if it hasn’t worked then you can make your argument before the Father. I agree with his plan.
Look, its taken years and decades for some of us to get to the place that were at and its going to be a similar process getting out. It takes time, day in day out, month in, month out, year in, year out. In this hour where all of life and culture is begging to challenge the written Word and its validity its time a people go deep and ask for a grace for long and loving meditation on the Word Of God. In the next posts I am going to write about some practical and scriptural ways that I have in Partnership with The Holy Spirit maintained a healthy Bible reading plan. Although we have to figure out what works best for us, I think there are some things that we can glean from one another on this topic. Till next time.
I will never forget a man that I met some 11 years ago in the Portland Airport. It was a time when I was not in relationship with Jesus and I begun a conversation with this gentleman talking about God, Religion and a few other things. I told him about my background growing up in the church and said that I didn’t know if it was for me or not. After telling him this he said to me that he held a PHD in religion and said his conclusion had brought him to the reality that God did not exist. I remember shortly after I gave my life to Jesus this conversation that I had with this man and it would often befuddle me. I would refer to it as I began my journey in reading the Bible.
I have spoke about this man from time to time and have even coined a phase about him, saying ” He knew the Bible better than I ever will, but I know the Bible better than he ever will”. Although my statement sounds a little bit like a contradiction it really isn’t. This man had given years to the study of the Scriptures if not decades and his understanding of it was mealy that of a great story but wasn’t actual or relevant for today.
I was reading a passage yesterday that struck me and reminded me of this conversation. The passage is found in Luke chapter 24 and verse 45. It reads like this;
“And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the scriptures”.
I love that this passage says Jesus opened their understanding, and the result of that was their ability to comprehend the scriptures. What I am trying to say is that the Bible is not meant to be read without a partnership with The Person of the Holy Spirit. Its this Person that opens our understanding and allows us to see that which people who haven’t given their lives to Jesus cannot see. This gentleman was reading the Bible apart from a relationship with The Holy Spirit and its results were death and not life. It’s important that when we read the Bible we read it with God the Holy Spirit asking HIm along the way to open the word up to us so that we can comprehend that which is being said. I love that it says “He opened their understanding”. It didn’t just say that He opened their eyes but their understanding. More than just seeing the Word we must understand it, so that we can comprehend it. As we peer into this mystery called the Bible we begin to understand, and through understanding we comprehend as we are able to comprehend it actual changes us from the inside out.
