Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Reading Your Bible

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John Piper addresses the question of desire: What do we do when we don’t feel like reading the Bible? After reflecting on the prayer of Psalm 119:36 (“Incline my heart to your testimonies”), he writes:

Over the years in my pastoral ministry, many people have complained to me that they do not have motivation to read the Bible. They have a sense of duty that they should, but the desire is not there. It is remarkable how many of those people feel that the absence of the desire is the last nail in the coffin of joyful meditation on God’s word.

When I ask them to describe to me what they are doing about it, they look at me as if I had misunderstood the problem. What can you do about the absence of desire, they wonder. “It’s not a matter of doing. It’s a matter of feeling,” they protest. The problem with this response is that these folks have not just lost desire for God’s word, but they have lost sight of the sovereign power of God, who gives that desire. They are acting like practical atheists. They have adopted a kind of fatalism that ignores the way the psalmist prays.

Evidently, the psalmist too felt this terrible tendency to drift away from the word of God. Evidently, he too knew the cooling of desire and the tendency of his heart to incline more to other things — especially money. Otherwise why would he have cried out, “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain”? He is pleading with God to give him desire for the word. He knows that ultimately God is sovereign over the desires of the heart. So, he calls on God to cause what he cannot make happen on his own. This is the answer to fatalism. This is the answer to acting like an atheist — as if there were no God who rules the heart, and can restore what we have lost.

Repent. Pray. Trust God to give what we cannot drum up ourselves. Then act as though we expect him to answer. This is great advice.

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Yes, the Bible Really Had Editors

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Sometimes conservative evangelicals get nervous when scholars start talking about the Bible’s “editors.” But there can be no doubt that it was so. Michael Heiser explains it briefly at the Logos Talk blog:

Consider the first four verses of the book of Ezekiel:

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.

The first two verses use the first person (“I”), which leads us to believe that Ezekiel himself is writing. But then there is a switch to the third person in verse three, as though the writer was not the famous prophet (“to Ezekiel”; “him”). Then it’s back to the first person (“I”) again in verse four. What’s going on? Can’t Ezekiel decide if he’s writing or not?

There’s no multiple personality disorder here. The switch between grammatical persons is simply the tell-tale sign of an editor. Someone other than Ezekiel inserted verse three to make it clear that the prophet wasn’t crazy: The prophet saw God and was led by the Spirit to describe what follows in the book.

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5 Common Mistakes in Bible Study

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We can’t hear reminders like this often enough:

The gospel is good news, but not every page of the Bible is intended to make us feel good about ourselves. Quite to the contrary, Scripture often points out our depravity and unfaithfulness. However, it also reminds of our faithful God.

When we pick and choose verses from Scripture aimed merely at lifting our spirits when we’re feeling down, we run the risk of reducing the Bible to a self-help manual.

Drawing from Jen Wilkin, Crossway lists 5 common mistakes we make in Bible study. They are:

  1. We don’t let the Bible speak for itself.
  2. We allow our hearts to guide our study.
  3. We skip over large swaths of God’s Word.
  4. We confuse reading books about the Bible with studying the actual Bible.
  5. We fail to see the big story of Scripture.

Crossway’s post explains each point further. Check it out!

How to Help Your Children Read the Bible

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Professor David Murray has great passion and exceptional skill at helping people build lifelong Bible-reading discipline into their children. In an article at Desiring God, he gives 8 tips to help your children read the Bible.

  1. Give them a Bible they enjoy.
  2. Give them an example to follow.
  3. Give them a compelling motive.
  4. Give them a clear, manageable plan.
  5. Give them questions to ask.
  6. Give them answers when they have questions.
  7. Give them encouragement to keep reading.
  8. Give them grace in their failures.

All of this comes from a simple vision:

One of the best gifts you’ll ever give to your children is familiarity with the Bible and its message.

Amen! I commend Murray’s full article to you. Check it out!

Recommendation: Best Christian Discipleship Manual

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I love it when I find others directing people to the Scriptures, instead of the latest and greatest workbook or study guide, to answer important questions. So I was delighted to see this article by Joe Tyrpak recommending the best manual for Christian discipleship, to which we already have access.

Would you like to train new or young believers in basic doctrine, worldview, finances, Christian character, marriage, sanctification, mission, conflict resolution, forgiveness, church life, endurance through suffering, the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and anticipation for Jesus’ return? All of these things—and more—are right there for you in The Gospel According to Matthew.

Matthew wrote his gospel to this end: to disciple people into maturity of faith in Christ Jesus. We are free to use his work for that purpose. Next time you want to start a discipleship class, or meet with someone to help them grow in Christ, why don’t you try it for yourself? You’ll cover all the bases God wants you to cover. And you can’t doubt the quality of the source material.

Tyrpak shows you how it can be done. Check it out!

What Value is the Old Testament to the Christian Life?

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On the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper fields this question: “What are the best uses of the Old Testament for giving shape to our Christian lives today?” After all, we clearly don’t keep many of the instructions in the Old Testament anymore (offering sacrifices, pursuing ceremonial purification, etc.).

After a brief but thorough explanation, Piper concludes with two glorious suggestions:

First, meeting God for who he really is so that we can know him and worship him since his character was revealed as truly in the Old Testament as in the New Testament.

Second, letting the hundreds of promises in the Old Testament wash over you as your blood-bought birthright in Christ Jesus so that every day, you set yourself free from sin by the superior pleasures of the promises of God.

Piper gives a skillful and clear answer to an important question. Check it out!

When Sprinkling is Not Enough

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On his blog, Russell Moore wonders whether Bible quoters have replace Bible readers. By these terms, he refers to those who use the Bible as an encyclopedic reference book with wise sayings and quotable verses to support their perspective. Moore laments a generation of Christians that rarely read a Bible book from beginning to end and are unable to follow a narrative arc or train of thought.

I’m delighted to see this situation turn around in part through the readers of this blog. In fact, it gives me some ideas for what to write on this coming year.

If you’re currently blasting your way through the whole Bible, I hope you’re having a terrific time. Keep pressing on! Some days, it feels like you’ll never finish, but that’s not true. Stay the course for only 45 minutes a day, and you’ll finish in about 70 days.

As Moore writes in his post:

To engage with a narrative requires…not just a sprinkling but an immersion in the text.

Check it out!

How Reading the Bible Should be Something Ordinary

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Tommy Keene writes at The Christward Collective about reading the Bible in an ordinary way. What he means by that is that we should read the Bible as we’d read any other book. Not just a sentence or paragraph at a time, but consuming chapters and books and more in great gobbles.

First, he suggests we ought to read the book and not merely read around the book. Set aside all your commentaries and study notes so you can soak in the text itself. Reader’s Bibles help immensely by clearing out all the gunk that has accumulated over the generations.

Second, he encourages us to read entire books of the Bible in a single sitting. Don’t bother to stop every time you hit something you don’t understand. Don’t pause or rewind; just keep going. Let the big picture impact you first, and then go back to the difficult parts as needed.

As Keene says:

Over the years we have trained ourselves to read the Bible in an unnatural way, so we’re going to have to break some bad habits.

Keene’s sound advice is well worth considering. Check it out!

The Lost Skill of Listening to the Bible

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Last week, The Gospel Coalition published an article with the intriguing title “Don’t Just Read the Bible.” I was expecting the article to be about Bible study (Don’t just read the Bible but study it.) But in fact, the author went in a different direction: Don’t just read the Bible; listen to it being read.

I have valued Bible listening for quite some time, which is why I’m happy to allow for audio-Bible listening in our 90-day reading challenge. Listening to the Bible is a marvelous way to soak in the big picture, the main ideas, the overarching story line. And in his TGC article, Jonathan Bailey makes a good case for the practice:

So how do reading and listening shape us in different ways? When we read, our default tendency is to study, to pull apart the text and piece it back together, and to draw conclusions. We’re after comprehension: to grasp with the mind, to sharpen our thinking, to learn, and, above all, to understand. When we read, we want to get something out of it. 

When we listen, we have to leave all that behind. We lose our ability to be precise; there’s no underlining, cross-referencing, or consulting commentaries. Listening is more leisurely. When we listen we’re after apprehension: to lay hold of something, or better said, to have something lay hold of us.

Now of course, comprehension is not a bad thing. But I certainly appreciate the useful distinction between comprehension (getting something out of it) and apprehension (merely beholding the wonder). This sounds just right. And anyway, having our own Bibles to read is a rather recent development in the history of the world. Before the 16th century, most people would only get to listen.

So in the bio at the bottom, I noticed that Mr. Bailey just launched a Kickstarter project for a new Bible listening mobile app. An app designed to perfect not the reading experience but the listening experience. Different vocal tracks with a variety of English-speaking accents. Seamless synchronization. Original music scored to highlight the text. Listening plans and playlists.

I must say I am impressed. So impressed that I immediately backed the project to get a lifetime subscription to the app. Perhaps you might want to consider this project as well. It became fully funded within 3 days, but it’s still open to new backers. The more they raise, the more features they can add at launch. But regardless of how much they raise now, it sounds like many more features will come over time.

So I encourage you to check it out! Here is the Kickstarter campaign for the listening app. And here is the article at TGC about the unique value of listening to the Bible.

The Staggering Consequences of Neglecting Your Bible

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Erik Raymond looks at Psalm 1 to draw out “The Staggering Consequences of Neglecting Your Bible.” He observes the severe contrasts in the psalm to draw the following conclusions:

So often we minimize doctrinal differences, but we cannot forget, doctrinal error leads to eternal punishment. We must be sure above all that we have that essential doctrine clear and see the Bible as God’s holy Word, given to us as a treasure to for reading, meditation, prayer, preaching, and singing. Too often our doctrinal confessions that assert a belief in the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures are betrayed by lives that ignore them. We must be sure that we are not succumbing to the false teaching that denies the supernatural nature of the Bible.

When we look at the result of a life lived drinking and delighting in the Word contrasted with one that rejects and belittles it, we have ample cause for evaluating our habits and our hearts.

Here in the dawning of a new year, it is certainly healthy to ask yourself what changes you should make with your life in order to give yourself more faithfully to this Word. For motivation, you need only to consider the staggering consequences of neglecting your Bible.

Check it out!