Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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One Danger of Quiet Times

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Unlocking the Bible has a stimulating reflection on “The Not-So-Quiet Quiet Time,” where Colin Smith warns we should spend more time listening to God than listening to our own hearts.

It has become common among Christians to think that listening to God means being quiet and listening to our own hearts. But here’s the problem with that:

God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).

If you believe that you listen to God by listening to your own heart, then what have you done? You have put your own heart in the place of God. If you make an idol of your heart, that will inevitably lead to a life of following the impulses of your own heart.

And who knows where that will lead you?

It’s worth considering: During your “quiet time,” whose voice do tend to listen to?

The rest of Smith’s article is worth reading. Check it out!

Mark’s Marvellous Book: A New Kind of Storybook Bible

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While the children’s book market offers a number of beautiful, theologically rich, and gospel-centered volumes, Mark’s Marvellous Book by Alan Mann offers something I haven’t seen before: A children’s story Bible driven not by topic but by the text. Mann presents Bible stories from Mark’s Gospel with clarity, precision, and a simplicity worth imitating. If you want to learn how to teach Bible stories to your children, read this book to them and learn to do what Mann does.

Mark's Marvellous BookMark’s Marvellous Book has 18 chapters, each focusing on a single episode in the life of Jesus. Each chapter has:

  • a one-word title stating the main point
  • 5 storybook pages, applying the story’s main point to a 4-6-year-old child
  • a single-page explanation of the Bible story and its main point
  • a memory verse from the story, again highlighting the main point

Perhaps you see where I’m going: Alan Mann gets the main points of these stories! And he centres his storytelling around those main points. (Dear fellow North Americans: Please don’t be put off by the anglicized spellings of words like centre and marvellous. This book will serve all English-speaking families.)

Since Mann doesn’t cover every episode from Mark, I felt a little misled by the advertisement labelling this book “A commentary on Mark for kids.” Yet the book still won over both me and my two young daughters. I could barely get the book away from them so I could finish reading it for this review.

The physical volume meets all my standard expectations for a children’s book: strong cover, good binding, shiny paper, sturdiness to take a beating. I’m grateful to Christian Focus Publications for providing a review copy.

I hope we see more books like this in the future. Mann has a great thing going here, and I would love to see similar storybook Bibles that expound texts with such skill.

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Too Much Bible?

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The Proclamation Trust recently posted a short piece asking whether the average Christian receives too much Bible teaching these days. Author Tim Ward questions whether our distraction-prone culture has led us to move so quickly from one teaching event (or recording) to another, and whether we might benefit from more time to meditate on each passage before moving right to the next.

In this aspect of our lives we have probably been more deeply shaped and trained by the distracted and distracting culture of our day than we realise. If I’m going to help any other believers around me let any parts of God’s word sink deep into them rather than simply letting lots of God’s word just wet our skin, I’ve got to be fighting against this cultural habit in myself.

Some good questions, I think. Check out Ward’s full article. I’m curious to hear what you think of it.

Our 10 Favorite Posts to Write in 2015

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Last week we shared the 10 most popular posts on Knowable Word from 2015. Today, we’re sharing the 10 posts of 2015 that were the most fun for us to write.

Ryan

5. How to Ruin a Small Group Discussion in 4 Easy Steps

I wrote this post tongue-in-cheek, which was a lot of fun. This post was part of my series on attending small group Bible studies, and I wrote most of it using examples from years of witnessing (and leading!) mediocre-to-bad discussions.

4. When Bible Study Meets Real Life

Who has the time to do all of this OIA Bible study? In this post I suggest looking at your devotional life through the lens of Bible intake, making sure not to neglect Bible study entirely.

3. How to Apply the Bible in Community

I taught a Sunday school class at my church this past year on how to study the Bible. While teaching, I was struck with how much Christians need each other to apply the Bible. This post offered the “how” portion of my answer.

2. Why We Need Community to Apply the Bible

See above. In this post, I tried to put my finger on why Christianity is not a solo venture. I love it when I can draw directly on the lessons God is teaching me for my posts.

1. Don’t Forget the Gospel During Bible Study

This was a post where I was preaching to myself. Whether I feel like a success or a failure after personal or group Bible study, I need to return again and again to the central message of the Bible—the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Peter

5. 50 Observations of John 3:16

I could hardly contain my excitement when students from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania took my challenge (from page 42 of Knowable Word) to make 50 observations of John 3:16. They sent me a photo of an autographed white board as the fruit of their labor.

4. Top 10 Curses of Study Bibles

Study Bibles are like guns. They are dangerous and require extreme caution. We should have rules about how to use them safely.

3. (Almost) How the Bible was Meant to be Read

To date, my favorite book to review has been the ESV Reader’s Bible. This thing will change the way you read the Bible. Check it out.

2. Don’t Neglect the Lesser-Known Commands of God

My April Fool’s post for this year was full of fun and good cheer. To both celebrate April Fool’s Day and teach the importance of context, I could think of nothing better than ridiculously to rip Scripture from its context.

1. Why God Speaks to Job Twice

I really enjoyed all the posts I wrote on the book of Job this year. These posts came out of a sermon series at my church, and this one was my favorite of the bunch.

In severe suffering, Job has accused God of doing wrong and of remaining silent. But God arrives, speaking out of the whirlwind, to put Job in his place. Job 38:1-39:30 records God’s first speech, recounting the wildness, inscrutability, and uncontrollable power of God’s creation. Duly humbled, Job tries to slink away like an amateur diver whose loosely tied trunks slipped off at surface impact.

But God will have nothing of the sort. “Oh no, you don’t. I’m not done with you yet.”

Avoid Sloppy Bible Reading

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John Starke has a good article about sloppy Bible reading.

What I mean by “sloppy reading” is that often I come to a text of Scripture thinking I’m reading in order to be informed about how I might believe and live, but actually I’m coming to Scripture for affirmation of what I already believe and how I already live. And so, I’m a sloppy reader who’s likely blind to my sloppiness. And it’s likely you are too.

He illustrates by showing what we should take away from Jesus’ statement that he came not for the healthy but for the sick. Starke exposes the ease with which we fail to see Christ—even in the Gospels—and he models grace-filled application for us.

Check it out!

Top 10 Posts of 2015

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San Churchill (2007), Creative Commons

San Churchill (2007), Creative Commons

It’s hip and cool for bloggers to post their top 10 posts of the year. And we want to be hip and cool. Our hearts tell us to do it, and the Bible says to “walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes” (Eccl 11:9). So here goes.

10. A Bible Reading Plan for Readers

I posted this one last year, and then just re-posted it last week. That helps to encourage people to read it more, which encourages them to read the Bible more. I think.

9. Top 11 OT Verses Quoted in NT

This post was part of my 2013 series analyzing every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. This one focusing on verses seems to be the one people first stumble on to.

8. How to Encourage Heart-Oriented Application

This post does just what you might expect it to do from the title.

7. Don’t Be a Commentary Junkie

Just don’t do it, okay? Your Bible study will be so much better for it.

6. Teach Bible Study to a 2-Year-Old

Many people really care about their kids! Just like Jesus (Matt 19:14).

5. Summary of the OIA Method

We put this one into the top menu so people could find it easily. It pretty much explains why this blog exists, so we’re glad it gets a lot of pageviews.

4. Details of the OIA Method

See the previous post, unless you want less of a summary and more of a detailed explanation. Then see this post instead.

3. Teach Bible Study to a 4-Year-Old

Many people care even more about their kids when they’re getting close to school age.

2. Main Points for All 66 Books of the Bible

This just isn’t fair. This, my most read post of 2015, barely contains any original content! I copied it all out of the NIV Proclamation Bible. I suppose there’s something deliciously humbling about this post’s popularity.

1. Teach Your Child to Have Devotions

And what’s even more delicious is that the #1 post belongs to Ryan, not me. This post was not only the most popular of 2015; its publication spawned the most heavily trafficked day in this blog’s history. I praise God for Ryan’s partnership! Best line: “When your child is old enough to read, give him a Bible and train him to use it.”

7 Benefits of Memorizing Long Scripture Passages

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Perhaps you’re not much of a reader, and this week’s contest announcement didn’t inspire you. Maybe you’re more interested in Scripture memory than Bible reading. If so, have you considered the benefits of memorizing long passages, even entire books, instead of select verses?

Chris Brauns suggests 7 benefits of systematic long-term Scripture memory, stretched over not only months but decades.

  1. It allows you to follow the example of the ant.
  2. Along with prayer, it offers the most immediate and intentional way to pursue sanctification.
  3. It enables you to identify insights into Scripture that take years to see.
  4. It teaches you what to pray.
  5. It preserves memories of when God’s word was impressed on you.
  6. It offers a tool for discipling others.
  7. It makes you a more efficient reader of theology.

Brauns’s article explains these points with helpful examples. Check it out!

Bible Reading Contest

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I believe it’s worth it to read the entire Bible quickly, and I’m willing to stand behind that belief. So I invite you to join me in my annual Bible blitz. The first 3 people to finish before me will win both a copy of Knowable Word and the study Bible of their choice from my buying guide. Note: If I decide international shipping costs are prohibitive, I reserve the right to email you a gift certificate or ebook instead of a physical book.

Rules:

  1. You must read (not scan or skim) all 66 books of the Protestant Bible. You may choose the translation and reading plan (canonical, chronological, etc.). You don’t have to stop and meditate on every detail, but I’m trusting you to be honest about reading and not skimming. Listening to an unabridged audio Bible is acceptable.
  2. You may not begin until January 1, 2016.
  3. As soon as you finish, you must email me at peter.krol@knowableword.com (or contact me through the web form) with the date you finished and what you thought of the speed-reading process.
  4. The first 3 people to finish before I do may select a study Bible for their prize package. If you request physical books instead of ebooks, I reserve the right to send you a gift card if I determine shipping costs are excessive.
  5. When I finish my speed-read, or when 3 others have contacted me (whichever comes first), I will update this post and close the contest.

To give you a sense of scope, here are the dates I finished my speed-reads over the last 5 years.

2011 – March 20

2012 – March 12

2013 – March 11

2014 – March 8

2015 – February 6

[2016 – February 5 — UPDATE: the contest is now over.]

The speed jumped in 2015 because I began supplementing my reading time with an audio Bible.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you. I hope you have as much fun with it as I do, and may the Lord draw us all nearer to him through it!

A Bible Reading Plan for Readers

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This is a great time to consider a new reading plan. While it requires discipline, it can also be great fun. I just reposted an article about the speed-reading Bible plan I’ve followed for the last 5 years. This article first appeared at The Gospel Coalition. In a few days, I’ll post a new contest to encourage you to try this delightful plan in the coming year.

Check it out!

An Example of Seeing Jesus on Every Page

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In “How the Bible Came Alive,” Rebecca Davis describes her experience reading Psalm 22 and learning to take her eyes off herself to see Christ. I appreciate her account of learning to follow the text wherever it would lead her.

What happened to me over the course of those two weeks — studying sounds far too academic. Meditating these days can have New-Age overtones. Pondering the Scriptures? Soaking in the Scriptures? But really the point isn’t what I did with the Scriptures. It’s what God did in me through them, as he held them up as a magnifying glass to see the Lord Jesus Christ more and more clearly.

Check it out!