Spending Time In God's Word

I was standing on a corner of a busy and crowded New York City street engaging people in Gospel conversations. It was one of the most amazing and terrifying experiences I have ever had. By nature, I’d call myself an introvert who finds talking to strangers a very difficult task. But there I was, outside of my comfort zone and sharing Christ with complete strangers…and loving it!

Though that was many years ago, one man stands out in my memory. As he walked toward me and slowed down to talk, it became immediately obvious that he did not speak English. As he explained to, in his own language, that he did not speak English, I realized that I had a copy of the Bible in his language. I reached into my bag and offered it to him as a gift. He looked at it, read the title of it in his language, smiled, then he kissed the Bible and thanked me.

His response to the gift stands out to me. His immediate response was to kiss the Bible. The joy in which he received it and the way he immediately valued it taught me a huge lesson. The Bible is to be treasured!

Why don’t we treasure the Bible the way we should?

Distractions

We live in a day and age of distractions. Some of you won’t read this blog completely because Facebook is calling, or you received a new Snap, or…

Yep we are a distracted people. The average American will spend more than 5 hours a day watching TV and another 3-4 hours on some other device with a screen. That works out to 7-10 years of your life will be given to sitting in front of a TV by the time you are 70.

Music, TV, Movies, Social Media, Video Games and the list goes on fight for our time and attention. To what ends? They are filling our minds, heart and soul with messages. Sometimes they are good, but the majority of times they are teaching us false truths and imbedding perspectives that are anti-biblical.

For instance, “by age 18, a U.S. youth will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence” (American Psychiatric Association). The Bible tells us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), and that we should not be strikers (1 Timothy 3:3).

Joshua Becker, a blogger on “Becoming Minimalist”, writes in his article “10 Reasons to Watch Less Television,” “Too much television results in disillusionment about what to expect from the world around us. This can most commonly be seen in people’s expectations of love, romance, and sexuality.”

The media we take in shapes us. It distorts our view of reality. As a believer, it pushes you to desire sin over righteousness. For instance, have you ever watched a TV show and wanted the main character to leave their spouse for someone else? They make the marriage relationship look awful and the affair look good, true and beautiful.

Movies, TV, music, Facebook and the list goes on, continues to feed an ever increasing appetite that leads to further emptiness. It will never satisfy, but will make you crave it more and more. The problem is that we are blinded to our own bad habits and don’t notice the affect it has on our lives and our faith. Yes, over indulgence in media will impact your faith. Your desire for God’s Word will decrease along with your passion for lost souls, your energy for worship, your zeal for righteousness and desire for church.

Have you ever noticed a lack of desire for the Word of God?

The Antidote: God’s Word

What is God’s Word? I mean, what do you really believe God’s Word is?

Does it provoke awe, admiration and desire, like the man who kissed the Bible? Or is a dull, boring and confusing book?

If you are a Christian, then you should desire God’s Word. And if you don’t, you are distracted from it by the world. This is why it is so important that we develop a habit of being in God’s Word, it is the antidote to the world’s message.

So what is the Word of God? Dr. Jason K Allen writes, “It indeed is the Word of God. We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God: it’s truthful, it’s trustworthy, it’s accurate. We embrace a verbal plenary understanding of inspiration. That means the words themselves were inspired. All the words are inspired. That’s really the theological perception that we bring to the table which heightens the sense of urgency around Bible intake.”

When we believe the Bible is the very words given to us by God, then it should invoke a sense of “urgency around Bible intake!”

Think of a letter you received from someone you love. How do you respond to it? Do you ignore it? Put in a box with the intention of getting to it one of these days? Do you read it right away? Maybe read it several times? Do you cherish it?

Yes, a love letter invokes a response of joy, desire and fascination. There is an urgency to it because you know who it was sent from. The relationship drives the desire.

God has given you His Word so you can know Him, know where you come from, where you are going, what the meaning and purpose of life is, what your mission is, how you can find forgiveness, redemption, hope, love, strength, peace and so much more. Do you believe this?

The world’s messages you are receiving daily at exponential rates are lying to you. Telling you that you are worthless, that you will never measure up, that nobody will want you, that you can’t trust God’s way, that cutting corners morally is a good thing, that good is bad and bad is good, etc. Taking in the Bible daily is the only way to consistently battle the lies of the enemy.

Without a regular diet of God’s Word, you will begin to change your views on moral issues. You will begin accepting things as good that you cannot imagine. You will begin to compromise and make excuses for your own desires for sins. Then you will not want to confront other people’s sins because of your own and the cycle will continue.

It’s not enough to know the Bible is the antidote, you have to consume it!

Delighting In God’s Word

The Psalmist writes, “taste and see that the Lord is good!” It is no accident that God regularly refers to His Word as food for our souls. I like good food, don’t you? What is your favorite food? What gets you really excited to eat?

Chipotle gets me really excited! I love going there. Or a good Mongolian BBQ! Yep, food can get us excited. Does God’s Word get you excited?

There are parts of God’s Word I love! I get really excited reading portions of Scriptures. King David writes about how He “delights in the Law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night!” How can you delight in the “Law”? When you recognize that it comes from the Lord and it teaches you how to relate to Him, it becomes exciting.

It starts with spending time it God’s Word. If you don’t have a regular diet of feasting on God’s Word, start today. Start small and build. I like to remind people that there are several approaches to God’s Word, the most important one is the one you do.

Approaches To Reading Your Bible

1.     Read to Read – We’ve already talked about the influence of the world’s message. You live in the world and you won’t avoid all the lies even if you stop watching TV. So you need to fill your mind with God’s Word. It is good to move through large portions of the Scriptures regularly. There are plans for reading through the Bible in a Year, reading through the New Testament, reading the Bible in 90 days, etc.

a.      Some I’d recommend is reading through the Gospels in a month, it takes 3 chapters a day to do it.

b.     Read a chapter of Proverbs every day during the months that have 31 days in them.

c.     Read through a whole book of the Bible in one sitting.

2.     Quiet Time – this is a daily devotional time intended to meditatively pray through and think through a passage of Scripture to connect with God. Basically, this is building your relationship time with God. What are you learning about God? His love for you? How you can relate to Him? There are many helps out there, but the Word of Life Quiet Time diary is an excellent resource.

3.     Memorization – Scripture memory is the fastest way to transform your mind. One of my teachers once said, “if you are not memorizing Scripture, then you are struggling with your thought life.” King David says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you!” There are several systems and aids out there. I like the Verses app.

4.     Personal Bible Study – This is an intentional time to dig deeper into the Scripture. It may not be the daily routine, but it is the exercise of learning to “handle the word properly.” It may be topical: “what does the Bible say about love?” It may be a book study: “I’m going to spend the year studying 1 Peter.” Or it might be a character study: “who exactly is Joseph and what can I learn from his life?” The idea is that you are digging deeper, slowly working through it, using commentaries, Bible dictionaries and study Bibles.

5.     Corporate Bible Study – this is regular Bible studies you do with other people. Sunday School, Youth Group, FCA, Young Life, are examples of some. Having friends over or accountability partners to study the Bible together. Here is where you get to interact with the Bible and others and see how God uses them to teach you His Word, and uses you to help others understand His Word.

6.     Hearing the Word of God – a regular intake of listening to God’s Word being read and explained in important. Learning to listen to the sermon each week, take notes and hear how God’s Word is explained is invaluable. Using apps like YouVersion to listen to the Scriptures being read. Reading the Bible out loud so you can hear it. The Bible was intended to be heard.

These six areas are important for all of us. Don’t feel like you have to do each one every day. I’d recommend starting with the Quiet Time and working in one day of memorization. Sometimes we need to change up our approach to keep things fresh, that’s ok. Rotate through these regularly. See how you can combine some together.

The goal isn’t to be burdened by the Bible, but to see the joy in spending time with God. Think about this: the Creator of the Universe, the one who hung the stars in their place, who hand crafted the Grand Canyon and painted the sunsets, He wants to spend time with you every day. He gave you a book, actually a library of books, for you to hear His words. Will you spend time with Him today?

I pray that you see the Bible as beautiful. That you pick it up and kiss it.