The Bible- A GPS for Life: How To Read the Bible
Psalm 119:1-5-112 2 Timothy 3:10-17
What are your earliest memories of the Bible? When is the first time, the second time, the third time you were introduced to it? My earliest memory is not reading the bible, but hearing it read. My dad and mom used to read the Bible to me when I was a little child. Each night before going to bed one read it to me as my brother and I went to sleep. I didn’t know it was the Bible. I had no idea what that word meant. It wasn’t like the children’s books. It was special. The words were powerful yet soft, other worldly, yet they seemed to come from their hearts. My earliest memories of the Bible is that the stories in there were warm and comforting, solid and loving, faithful and true, like my parents.
As I got older, the Bible became something taught in Sunday School, often with a felt board and those little paper figures they moved around upon the board. It was something taught by an adult as I fidgeted and clowned around with my friends in class. God bless everybody who teaches Sunday School! And, by the way, it may look like the students aren’t learning sometimes, but what you are doing really does matter. Your messages really do sink in and become a part of the person your students grow into. When I was a teenager, I read the Bible more for myself. My Bible had a cover on it that looked like blue jeans. And there were stick figure artworks in it. The Living Bible, that was the version, the one that made the words of the Bible sound modern and real. I thought the Bible was a counter-cultural, revolutionary document, then. I still do. It challenged authority. It lifted up the lowly. It pointed me to a Jesus who made radical demands on my life. It made me feel that I was living in a world that didn’t exist all around me, but that should exist, the Kingdom of God.
My interactions with the Bible have kept changing as I’ve kept growing. I learned the form-critical method of interpretation in college and in seminary. I’ve experienced the Bible through the eyes of people of other cultures. I’ve been through and taught Disciple Bible Study, a transformational way of having the word of God interact with you, truly one of the finest things that the United Methodist Church has ever offered. I’ve been challenged by the growth of churches who say they are Bible literalists and who practice teaching the bible in worship verse by verse week after week, like the Calvary Chapel movement. And one thing has remained constant for me. I have experienced the Bible as God’s great love story, a book that reaches out and grabs me with passion and with comfort, a book that will not let me go. I find my life in this book and I find the way to abundant life in this book. And I know you’ll find your life in this book, too, if you’ll dedicate yourself to reading it.
In these next two months I think I will have a sermon series on the Bible: The Bible is the guide for a solid, Christian life. It steers you towards salvation, which is freedom from sin and self-destruction, abundant life, justice and peace within our land and among the nations. It steers you towards salvation by developing a clear voice of conscience in your head, within your heart, that tells you to turn left here, avoid that pile up there, so many miles to go and things to do before you sleep. A GPS is a wonderful metaphor for the Bible. Especially an older GPS. Anybody have a GPS that is a little out of date? I have used one- it cracks me up. Sometimes there are new roads that have been built that are not on old GPS. And when you look at the screen it shows we are driving through a field, all green, when we are actually driving on a perfectly good road. And it keeps saying, “Recalculating. Recalculating.” A GPS doesn’t show us everything, the buildings around us, the roads sometimes, but it always keeps us on track.
The Bible can be hard to figure out sometimes, especially when we deal with new issues in life, changing times, things the Biblical authors weren’t familiar with like the internet. But somehow, given time and if we keep listening to it, the Bible still helps us get through, steers us in the right direction.
In the weeks to come I’ll be looking at the nature of the Bible- How is the Bible the Word of God- what does that mean? I’ll be looking a the content of the Bible- it’s 66 separate books, you know, not one book that we can read like a novel. It has many different authors, written within several different time periods, and it has so many different genres of literature- law and poetry, history and parable, letters and gospel and wisdom literature- When we are having trouble understanding the Bible and applying it to your life it is usually because we are not aware of what kind of literature we are reading at that moment. Wisdom literature is very different than law. Poetry is different than history. We’ll learn how the Bible came together and how it can change your life. But maybe the most important thing that can happen for you is that you have the chance to read the entire Bible from cover to cover with your friends in church. Go to yourversion.com to get a free daily reading app. Maybe purchase a new translation of the Bible, The Common English Bible, to do your reading. Let’s become more Methodist this year than we have ever been.
The society that John Wesley and his brother Charles started at Oxford University was called Methodist by those who laughed at them because they treated their Christian life so methodically. They visited the prison each week like clockwork. They worshipped regularly like clockwork. They read the Bible, privately and in Bible study groups like clockwork- they had a method for Christian living that they followed. And because they did, they had a huge impact on their world for Christ. That’s my vision for New Life as well, that we have a huge impact on the world for Christ, and that the strong backbone of this Christian lifestyle is the reading of scripture. John Wesley called himself a person of one book, the Bible. And he feared that one day the people called Methodists would lose their fervor and lose their impact because they lost the scripture and they lost their methodical style of living a Christian life. And that is exactly what has happened in America. Methodism has slowly lurched towards becoming a dead and dying sect for over 50 years now.
Think about the words of the Psalmist. The psalmist saw the word of God as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path- it guided the places he went and the way he lived. Look at the scripture there. Verse 106- I have sworn an oath to observe your righteous ordinances. Isn’t that what we did when we joined the church? Isn’t that what we did when we accepted the vows of baptism for ourselves? How are you doing observing God’s righteous ordinances? Give me life according to your word- verse 107. Is the Bible a living book for you or a dead book- do you hear God speaking through it or are they dead, boring historical stories to you? Verse 111- Your decrees are my heritage forever, the joy of my heart… I incline my ear.
Today, commit yourself to incline your ear to the Word of God, the Bible.
How do you read the Bible? First, just do it. Develop a plan and follow through on it. Set aside the best time to read for you- for many people it is in the early morning before you start your day, for some it is before going to bed. Read confidently, assured that God will speak to you and change your life, but read with humility, from the stance that there is always more to learn. As you read have a pen and a notebook with you to write down things you discover and questions you have. Try to figure out what the passage is saying about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Is there a command there to obey or a principle to learn? What is this scripture saying to your life right now? Write the answers to these questions in your notebook and you will soon have a spiritual journal that shows you where you’ve been and how you are growing. Maybe the most important thing about reading the Bible daily is to pray first, for understanding and growth, and pray at the end, a thank you to God for the witness of scripture in your life and for God to guide your paths in the days to come.
In second Timothy it is written that we should grow up with the scriptures- from childhood you have known the sacred writings. If you do this, your belief will become firm and strong. The scripture instructs you towards salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired, which means God breathed it into being and God breaths through it now, bringing a new you into being. The Bible is useful for teaching, for reproof and correction- which means it keeps us from making big mistakes in our life, and it equips us for every good work.
Maybe the most important thing to remember when reading the bible is that its primary purpose is to point us to Jesus Christ, the one who is the Word of God, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Every verse of scripture that we interpret should be in the light of Jesus, who loved us so much that he gave his life for us and who teaches us to love God completely and our neighbor as ourselves. Every verse we interpret should find affirmation in the Body of Christ, in other words, it is not just in individual reading of scripture that we find life. It is in discussion of the scripture with our brothers and sisters that we gain the fullest understanding of the truth.
As we read the Bible, God will encounter us again and again, both with comforting signs of presence and with surprises that confound and challenge. Before we begin the journey, let us take the bread and the cup for strength and rededicate ourselves to a life worthy of the gospel. Amen.
Psalm 119:1-5-112 2 Timothy 3:10-17
What are your earliest memories of the Bible? When is the first time, the second time, the third time you were introduced to it? My earliest memory is not reading the bible, but hearing it read. My dad and mom used to read the Bible to me when I was a little child. Each night before going to bed one read it to me as my brother and I went to sleep. I didn’t know it was the Bible. I had no idea what that word meant. It wasn’t like the children’s books. It was special. The words were powerful yet soft, other worldly, yet they seemed to come from their hearts. My earliest memories of the Bible is that the stories in there were warm and comforting, solid and loving, faithful and true, like my parents.
As I got older, the Bible became something taught in Sunday School, often with a felt board and those little paper figures they moved around upon the board. It was something taught by an adult as I fidgeted and clowned around with my friends in class. God bless everybody who teaches Sunday School! And, by the way, it may look like the students aren’t learning sometimes, but what you are doing really does matter. Your messages really do sink in and become a part of the person your students grow into. When I was a teenager, I read the Bible more for myself. My Bible had a cover on it that looked like blue jeans. And there were stick figure artworks in it. The Living Bible, that was the version, the one that made the words of the Bible sound modern and real. I thought the Bible was a counter-cultural, revolutionary document, then. I still do. It challenged authority. It lifted up the lowly. It pointed me to a Jesus who made radical demands on my life. It made me feel that I was living in a world that didn’t exist all around me, but that should exist, the Kingdom of God.
My interactions with the Bible have kept changing as I’ve kept growing. I learned the form-critical method of interpretation in college and in seminary. I’ve experienced the Bible through the eyes of people of other cultures. I’ve been through and taught Disciple Bible Study, a transformational way of having the word of God interact with you, truly one of the finest things that the United Methodist Church has ever offered. I’ve been challenged by the growth of churches who say they are Bible literalists and who practice teaching the bible in worship verse by verse week after week, like the Calvary Chapel movement. And one thing has remained constant for me. I have experienced the Bible as God’s great love story, a book that reaches out and grabs me with passion and with comfort, a book that will not let me go. I find my life in this book and I find the way to abundant life in this book. And I know you’ll find your life in this book, too, if you’ll dedicate yourself to reading it.
In these next two months I think I will have a sermon series on the Bible: The Bible is the guide for a solid, Christian life. It steers you towards salvation, which is freedom from sin and self-destruction, abundant life, justice and peace within our land and among the nations. It steers you towards salvation by developing a clear voice of conscience in your head, within your heart, that tells you to turn left here, avoid that pile up there, so many miles to go and things to do before you sleep. A GPS is a wonderful metaphor for the Bible. Especially an older GPS. Anybody have a GPS that is a little out of date? I have used one- it cracks me up. Sometimes there are new roads that have been built that are not on old GPS. And when you look at the screen it shows we are driving through a field, all green, when we are actually driving on a perfectly good road. And it keeps saying, “Recalculating. Recalculating.” A GPS doesn’t show us everything, the buildings around us, the roads sometimes, but it always keeps us on track.
The Bible can be hard to figure out sometimes, especially when we deal with new issues in life, changing times, things the Biblical authors weren’t familiar with like the internet. But somehow, given time and if we keep listening to it, the Bible still helps us get through, steers us in the right direction.
In the weeks to come I’ll be looking at the nature of the Bible- How is the Bible the Word of God- what does that mean? I’ll be looking a the content of the Bible- it’s 66 separate books, you know, not one book that we can read like a novel. It has many different authors, written within several different time periods, and it has so many different genres of literature- law and poetry, history and parable, letters and gospel and wisdom literature- When we are having trouble understanding the Bible and applying it to your life it is usually because we are not aware of what kind of literature we are reading at that moment. Wisdom literature is very different than law. Poetry is different than history. We’ll learn how the Bible came together and how it can change your life. But maybe the most important thing that can happen for you is that you have the chance to read the entire Bible from cover to cover with your friends in church. Go to yourversion.com to get a free daily reading app. Maybe purchase a new translation of the Bible, The Common English Bible, to do your reading. Let’s become more Methodist this year than we have ever been.
The society that John Wesley and his brother Charles started at Oxford University was called Methodist by those who laughed at them because they treated their Christian life so methodically. They visited the prison each week like clockwork. They worshipped regularly like clockwork. They read the Bible, privately and in Bible study groups like clockwork- they had a method for Christian living that they followed. And because they did, they had a huge impact on their world for Christ. That’s my vision for New Life as well, that we have a huge impact on the world for Christ, and that the strong backbone of this Christian lifestyle is the reading of scripture. John Wesley called himself a person of one book, the Bible. And he feared that one day the people called Methodists would lose their fervor and lose their impact because they lost the scripture and they lost their methodical style of living a Christian life. And that is exactly what has happened in America. Methodism has slowly lurched towards becoming a dead and dying sect for over 50 years now.
Think about the words of the Psalmist. The psalmist saw the word of God as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path- it guided the places he went and the way he lived. Look at the scripture there. Verse 106- I have sworn an oath to observe your righteous ordinances. Isn’t that what we did when we joined the church? Isn’t that what we did when we accepted the vows of baptism for ourselves? How are you doing observing God’s righteous ordinances? Give me life according to your word- verse 107. Is the Bible a living book for you or a dead book- do you hear God speaking through it or are they dead, boring historical stories to you? Verse 111- Your decrees are my heritage forever, the joy of my heart… I incline my ear.
Today, commit yourself to incline your ear to the Word of God, the Bible.
How do you read the Bible? First, just do it. Develop a plan and follow through on it. Set aside the best time to read for you- for many people it is in the early morning before you start your day, for some it is before going to bed. Read confidently, assured that God will speak to you and change your life, but read with humility, from the stance that there is always more to learn. As you read have a pen and a notebook with you to write down things you discover and questions you have. Try to figure out what the passage is saying about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Is there a command there to obey or a principle to learn? What is this scripture saying to your life right now? Write the answers to these questions in your notebook and you will soon have a spiritual journal that shows you where you’ve been and how you are growing. Maybe the most important thing about reading the Bible daily is to pray first, for understanding and growth, and pray at the end, a thank you to God for the witness of scripture in your life and for God to guide your paths in the days to come.
In second Timothy it is written that we should grow up with the scriptures- from childhood you have known the sacred writings. If you do this, your belief will become firm and strong. The scripture instructs you towards salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired, which means God breathed it into being and God breaths through it now, bringing a new you into being. The Bible is useful for teaching, for reproof and correction- which means it keeps us from making big mistakes in our life, and it equips us for every good work.
Maybe the most important thing to remember when reading the bible is that its primary purpose is to point us to Jesus Christ, the one who is the Word of God, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Every verse of scripture that we interpret should be in the light of Jesus, who loved us so much that he gave his life for us and who teaches us to love God completely and our neighbor as ourselves. Every verse we interpret should find affirmation in the Body of Christ, in other words, it is not just in individual reading of scripture that we find life. It is in discussion of the scripture with our brothers and sisters that we gain the fullest understanding of the truth.
As we read the Bible, God will encounter us again and again, both with comforting signs of presence and with surprises that confound and challenge. Before we begin the journey, let us take the bread and the cup for strength and rededicate ourselves to a life worthy of the gospel. Amen.
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