Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Finding Motivation for Bible Reading

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Reagan Rose tells a compelling story of his transformation with respect to Bible reading, from feeling guilty to finding delight in the Scripture. He found the conviction that the Bible can be understood. He realized he didn’t have to read it, but he gets to read it. And he began seeing specific changes in his life as a result of reading it. He writes:

I write this in the hopes that it might be helpful to some other believer who, like myself, eagerly desires to read the Word with consistency but finds themselves discouraged by their lack of consistency.

Perhaps his testimony can encourage you as well.

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How Bible Study Changed One Life

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I’m grateful for Glenna Marshall’s delightful testimony that “Bible Study Changed My Life, and It Can Change Yours.” She reflects on the day she began taking Bible seriously, and how she’s never looked back.

For nearly fifteen years, I have filled up spiral notebooks with what God has taught me about his character from his word. I’ve added questions along the way, and I’ve learned to outline chapters and books and to dig into context and the historical landscape. I’ve learned to read Scripture through a gospel lens, holding the redemptive story arc in view as I study. I’ve learned to ask questions, to note themes and repeated words and timelines. I’ve learned to always look at cross-references, to let the New Testament writers teach me how to interpret the Old Testament. I’ve gotten better at paying attention to genre and style. I’ve learned that sometimes I won’t understand what I’m reading until I’ve spent a good long time sitting in the text. I’ve learned that the frustration I feel when I don’t understand is actually really good for my soul. I’ve learned that no matter how tired I am, how busy my day might be, or how much I hurt in body or soul, I will never, ever, ever regret time spent in God’s Word.

The rest of her report is well worth your consideraiton.

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4 Gospels, 4 Messages

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Mark Strauss has a very helpful piece on the different theological messages of each of the four gospels. He comments on the ancient practice of harmonizing the gospels into a single narrative of Christ’s life, which serves basic educational and apologetic purposes. However, he argues that the books ought to be taught separately so the theological themes of each one can be highlighted.

He covers the four ways they portray who Jesus is, the four ways they introduce Jesus’ life, the four ways they select what material to include, and their four distinct perspectives on the crucifixion. Here is a taste:

While a “harmony” of the Gospels may be useful for historical and apologetic purposes (for example, to resolve apparent contradictions), it is not the best way to preach and teach the Gospels. This is true whether you are preaching a series of messages through one Gospel or whether you are preaching a single passage found in a particular Gospel. As you read through each Gospel, listen for its narrative theology, the theological truths the Spirit-inspired author is seeking to convey.

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God’s Majesty on Earth in Psalm 8

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I think you’ll find much benefit in this brief study of Psalm 8 by Daniel Stevens. Stevens models many great OIA principles, such as:

Here is a taste:

What I want us to pay attention to as we look at this passage is first the framing of it, how we begin and end with the same words, “Oh LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” This is ultimately, first and foremost, a psalm of praise for the majesty of God. Within that, however, we’re going to find sets of contrasts and possibly even a story that moves along. When we look at the first stanza, and indeed the second and the third, what we’re going to want to see is the ways in which contrasts are used to show God’s glory and his kindness to us. In the first we find the high and the low, the great and the small. His glory is above the heavens. We are brought into the realm of all of the cosmos, the stars in the sky, and his strength is in the mouth of babies and infants. The grand stars of the heavens and the smallest infant, both together show the glory of God.

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The Benefits of Waiting to Use Commentaries

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Colleen Searcy believes it’s in your best interest not to reach for commentaries too quickly in your Bible study. Ryan and I tend to agree with her. As do Stephen Kneale and John Piper, among others.

Searcy compares commentaries to Google Maps, highlighting how much more knowledgable we become of an area from a paper map vs. a GPS app. And in the process, she keenly identifies three major benefits of not using commentaries too quickly.

  1. Holding off on commentaries encourages engagement with God and with others.
  2. Doing the work helps you remember.
  3. You learn to recognize landmarks and patterns that are woven throughout the Scriptures.

There is much here worthy of your consideration.

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Developing a Culture of Discipleship

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While learning how to study the Bible is one crucial part of Christian discipleship, it is not the only part. So I’m happy to zoom out from my usual narrow focus on learning how to study the Bible to highlight this article about how to cultivate a culture of discipleship in the local church.

The concept of “discipling” is often shrouded in mystique, and Jeffrey Wiesner does a wonderful job making it more accessible. He covers the following topics:

  • What is discipleship?
  • What is a discipleship culture?
  • What commitments inform a discipleship culture?
  • What practices shape a discipleship culture?
  • What metrics evaluate a discipleship culture?

This longer article is well worth your time to help you and your church obey Jesus’ great commission to go and make disciples (Matt 28:18-20).

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The Beatitudes as Invitations

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I bet you’ll really enjoy Joshua Greever’s study of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. He shows how the literary context and the allusions to the Old Testament shape the way we ought to read these famous verses. And when read properly, they are not universal promises to all sorts of good or nice people; they aim to shape us into mature Christ-followers.

We need to identify what the Beatitudes are in order to discern how they function. We must see them as Jesus’s invitations shaped by the Old Testament, directed to the empty, and intended to produce faith in Christ. When we read them rightly, we see them as Jesus’s good and gracious gift pointing us to the blessed life.

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What Does it Mean to “Keep” the Book of Revelation?

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Revelation 1:3 declares:

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Justin Dillehay looks to the rest of the book to speak for itself about what it means to “keep” this magnificent book, and he lands on three key applications: hear it being read, keep God’s commandments, and keep your eyes fixed on who Jesus is. Here is a taste:

Can you imagine a group of Christians sitting and listening to the entire book of Revelation read aloud in one sitting? I can, because I’ve been a part of such a reading several times. And John is right; it’s a “blessed” experience! You should try it. Gather a group of friends and carve out about ninety minutes to just sit and read together. It won’t remove all the book’s difficulties. But prepare to be amazed at the connections and the patterns you’ll notice when you hear it all at once, the way the original hearers likely would have.

Don’t become a prophecy fanatic who obsesses over Revelation while neglecting the rest of the Bible. But please, for your own sake, don’t stop reading this book. It’s the only book in the New Testament that explicitly pronounces a blessing for the one who reads it. So, keep reading it.

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Reading the Gospels as Wholes

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Sadly, much reading and teaching of the gospels breaks the text down into tiny chunks, covering only a single scene or saying at a time. Jeannine Brown argues that this is not the best way to read them.

something important is lost when that’s as far as we look. Each Gospel writer has shaped their story of Jesus in ways that emphasize specific themes and messages about Jesus, and there is great value in studying a Gospel in its entirety to see and hear these messages clearly.

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When Life is Hard

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I appreciate Glenna Marshall’s advice: “When Life is Hard, Keep Reading Your Bible.” She urges us not to stew in our sadness, turning inward, analyzing the feelings, attempting to fix them. Instead, she calls us to look beyond ourselves, to God’s word.

Fascinatingly, God’s word might not even have the exact answer to “fix” life’s current hardness.

We often feel the need to dissect our sadness, to turn it inside out in an effort to understand it. We believe that if we can just understand it, we could fix it. But life isn’t always so easily fixed. Brokenness is rarely quickly mended. Suffering is often long and draining. It’s not wrong to seek to understand our sorrows, but sometimes what we need is to turn our gaze outward. We need to look to something solid and unchanging. Someone solid and unchanging

Marshall demonstrates the value of seeking the Lord through his word, which puts all the hard things into perspective, even if they’re not fixed.

She talks about finding companionship and guidance. One thing I would add is that the Scriptures also give us the vocabulary to lament the hard times. The Lord has entered into our suffering, and he gives us words to help us process it with him.

So along with Glenna, I urge you: Don’t approach the hard times as times to pull yourself away from God and his word. Run toward him to find resources to help you through.

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