Alright, so I said in our last video that we would move this week into Bible Study, and then finish up next week with prayer...and that is what we’re going to do, sort of. I’ll explain shortly. First we need to ask, why is reading the Bible important? Is it important?
Last session I said that the primary method God uses for His word going forth is the preaching of the Word, which I believe is 100% correct. We need to realize that most people throughout the past 2,000 years of Christian history have been illiterate, that is, they couldn’t read or write. Add to this the fact that even those who had such capacities had no Bible in their own language to read, and you will begin to grasp the important place preaching would have for instructing people as to the contents of God’s word. And while our circumstances and culture have changed, the primacy of the preached word has not.
That being said, we do live in a different day and age. The vast majority of you watching this are very competent at the basics of reading and written communication. And the Bible is not only available in your language, it’s available in great abundance. There are so many translations available in English that if you don’t know what to look for, it might be really hard to make a decision. So we live in a time when reading God’s word for ourselves is an option that is actually on the table for us. I want to look at a couple of verses that might point us toward the benefits of reading God’s word for ourselves.
Pslam 1:1-2
Psalm 119:9-11 (suggest they read all of Psalm 119)
How are we to store something in our heart? Meditate on it? Well, one most excellent, basic, and important way is to be reading God’s word for ourselves.
But then we encounter the question of, how? What is the best way to read God’s word? Well, I want to give you an Acronym to keep in mind as you approach God’s word: CPRS
When I learned this I tried to rearrange the letters into an order that I thought put them in order of importance, but I found that I couldn’t actually remember them that way, so I went back to what I was taught, CPRS. We already know what CPR is, so adding an S to the end isn’t too much to ask our memory banks. So, what do these letters stand for?
C:arefully
P:rayerfully
R:epeatedly
S:lowly
And here’s what I mean when I said we’ll kind of do prayer separately next week: as we walk through these four things, I will skip over prayer and we’ll devote all of the next session to it. In doing so, our focus we be centered on how prayer and reading God’s word relate to one another, which I believe will be helpful for us. So today we’ll focus on those other four aspects, which are very important as well.
First, carefully. When we read the Scriptures, we need to pay careful and close attention to what is being said. Watch for patterns, the flow of thought. Watch for key words. Pay attention. It is so easy to just gloss over as we read so that we can say, “yep, read my Bible today.” But this is the very word of God Himself. It behooves us to listen, and to listen carefully. A few practical suggestions here: first, you need a good Bible, a study Bible if you can get one. By good Bible, I don’t mean expensive, but get a good translation. My favorite is the ESV; other good ones include the NIV, the NASB, the HCSB, the NKJV, and to a lesser extent, the NLT. The NIV study Bible and ESV study Bible would both good options to look at. You can also get many free apps that have the Bible, such as YouVersion. Also, if you have an Apple device, Crossway has their ESV Global Study Bible available for free download.
Second, have a journal or notebook. I’m not much of a journaler, partly because I am not that interested in recording my feelings, second because I lose everything. So my notes end up and scraps of paper strewn anywhere and everywhere. But having someplace where you can write down observations, questions that pop to mind as you read, ways that you think a particular verse might apply in your life--that can be really helpful. If you don’t write it down, there’s a good chance you won’t remember it, so having a notebook or journal handy can help with that. It also can be helpful if a verse strikes you to actually write the whole verse or set of verses out inside that notebook. We see things when we’re writing them that we often miss when we’re simply reading.
Third, ask questions as you read. What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about sin? How is God’s mercy and grace shown here? Is there a lesson for me to learn? A sin that I need to repent of? Why is this passage important for my understanding of Jesus? A lot of those questions will answer themselves as you continue to read in a particular area, but sometimes those questions will give you a resource where you can say, “hey, I need to look into this more.”
Next, (skipping prayerfully), we want to look at repeatedly. We want to read God’s word repeatedly. A quick skim or once over of a text will very rarely give you very much to work with. You won’t understand it, you won’t remember it, it will be in one ear and out the other. So we want to take our time, and read over and over. I once listened to a John MacArthur lecture on studying the Bible, and the method he suggested was this: take a book like 1 John, and read it, all the way through. That should take you less than twenty minutes, unless you’re really slow, in which case, still less than a half hour. Now do the same thing again the next day. And the next. And read all the way through 1 John every day for 30 days. Guess what? By the end of that month, you know 1 John like the back of your hand. What about a bigger book like John’s gospel? Divide it into bite sized chunks. Read the first 7 chapters every day for 30 days, the the following month do chapters 8-14, and the following month 15-21. That seems like it would take a lot of time, but if you were consistent in doing that, you would have really mastered the New Testament in less than three years. That’s a pretty remarkable thought. So often we’re frustrated with how little we know. Remember this: you aren’t shooting to be a Bible scholar tomorrow, but rather, aiming to fill your mind with the word of God right now so that 40 years from now, it oozes out of you. It was once said of John Bunyan that if you pricked him anywhere, he would bleed Bibline. Oh that that might be true of us. Read God’s word, and read it over and over and over.
Finally, we come to slowly. Read God’s word slowly. It’s hard to read carefully if you are speeding over the words. It’s hard for their full force to sink in when you run over and past them. Slow down and smell the roses. When I was in high school my Pastor would tell me that you don’t read the Bible to finish: you read the Bible to change. We won’t be changed by what we’ve missed.
You might say, how in the world can I read slowly when you just said to read 7 chapters a day!? Well, first of all, reading slow means different things to different people. We all read at our own pace. But if you can’t take a that 5-7 chapter chunk every day, that’s okay. Figure out what you can do. Maybe you can cover 1 or 2 chapters daily? That’s often what it is for me. There will be usually 1 or 2 days a week where I’ll get into that 5-7 chapter territory, and sometimes if I have a day off I’ll read even more. But most days it is 2-3 chapters. And that’s okay! But make the most of it. Go slow enough to see what’s there.
So, to repeat that Acronym to you again,
Read
Carefully
Prayerfully
Repeatedly
Slowly
And we’ll deal with the prayerfully part next time. Until then, I leave you with Paul’s words to the Colossians, “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.”
Helpful links:
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-prayer-in-the-bible1
https://www.crossway.org/blog/2015/04/why-were-giving-away-the-esv-global-study-bible-to-everyone/
http://www.blueletterbible.org/
https://www.biblegateway.com/
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