Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Hope for the Backsliding Bible Reader

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Recently, the good folks at the Good Book blog posted “Confessions of a Backsliding Bible Reader” by Helen Thorne. Ms. Thorne lists all the great excuses she makes each day that keep her from reading her Bible. Then she shares truth that helps her walk through the excuses.

She writes of how God delights to be known by us:

The reality is that God would much prefer a sleepy attempt to engage with him than no attempt at all. I could quite happily pray on the bus and listen to his word on my mp3. No-one in my office would actually mind if I took a proper lunch-break and went somewhere quiet to read. And it would probably be far healthier for my spiritual life if I did a little less “for God” and spent a little longer “with God” occasionally saying “no” to an activity so I can spend some serious time with my heavenly Father.

In the end, she offers a simple treatment: connect with your church community. None can stand alone, so why not open ourselves to others and ask for help?

Her brief meditation is well worth the look. Check it out!

John Piper’s Desired Legacy

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Desiring GodI couldn’t be more thrilled with the new direction of John Piper and Desiring God ministries. From Piper’s blog post last week called “The Legacy I Want to Leave“:

For most of my pastoral life, I heralded the wonders of what I saw in the Bible.

I tried to do this in such a way that people could see that the wonders really did come from the Bible, and not from me. But I seldom focused on how I saw the spectacular truths of Scripture. My preaching and writing aimed mainly to bring people to a banquet, not take them into the kitchen.

When I think of the coming generations, I am not content to only leave them a deposit of books and sermons that celebrate the glories of God and the wonders of Christian Hedonism…

Underneath all the arguments is the Book. The Bible. If future generations only learn what we saw, and not how to see it for themselves, they will be second-handers. And second-handers cannot last. They grow bored and boring. Powerful, truth-preserving, God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, soul-ravishing, mission-advancing ministry is sustained by the power to see for yourself the glories of God’s word.

So I have a new and focused passion to help people really see the riches of God’s word for themselves.

http://vimeo.com/88838646

Please check out the rest of the post and Piper’s short video explaining his vision. And let’s pray that God would use this influential man of God for incredible good for Jesus’ sake. Let’s pray that his legacy would truly be more than a deposit of books and sermons, but a generation of Christians who know how to look at the Book and mine its riches for themselves.

And while you pray, please pray for me. I imagine Piper will write a book about how to study the Bible. I’m sure it will sell better than my recently released book on the topic. Please pray that I would resist any petty jealousy and delight in the Lord’s word going forth.

Check it out!

I Can Do All Things…Except Ignore the Context

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Pastor Yancey Arrington recently wrote a great post about everyone’s favorite inspirational verse: Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (ESV). We love quoting this verse to motivate ourselves to try harder, run faster, and work smarter.

However, Arrington reminds us that context drives interpretation. And in the context of Philippians 4, doing “all things” means “facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil 4:12). In other words, “I can do all things” has more to do with resting and learning contentment than with pushing and triumphing.

Arrington makes a good case, and I encourage you to check it out!

How Many Long-Time Christians Can’t Study the Bible?

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Gospel CoalitionLast week, the Gospel Coalition posted this terrific article by Jen Wilkin. She writes of the frequent confession she hears that maddens but no longer surprises her:

I’ve been in church for years, but no one has taught me to study my Bible until now.

She goes on to reflect:

We continue to tell people this is what you should believe about marriage and this is what you need to know about doctrine and this is what your idolatry looks like. But because we never train them in the Scriptures, they have no framework to attach these exhortations to beyond their church membership or their pastor’s personality or their group leader’s opinion. More importantly, they have no plumb line to measure these exhortations against. It never occurs to them to disagree with what they are being taught because they cannot distinguish between our interpretation of Scripture and Scripture itself, having little to no firsthand knowledge of what it says.

And they’ve been in church for years.

Yes! And then:

We must teach the Bible. Please hear me. We must teach the Bible, and we must do so in such a way that those sitting under our teaching learn to feed themselves rather than rely solely on us to feed them. We cannot assume that our people know the first thing about where to start or how to proceed. It is not sufficient to send them a link to a reading plan or a study method. It is our job to give them good tools and to model how to use them. There is a reason many love Jesus Calling more than they love the Gospel of John. If we equip them with the greater thing, they will lose their desire for the lesser thing.

Wilkin writes of women’s Bible studies, but her points are equally valid for either gender. I wish I could quote the entire article for you, but the best I can do is to send you over to TGC’s site.

Check it out!

Three Kinds of Shame

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Sin is muddy. When it splashes, we rightly want to clean it up. But sometimes our zeal to clean causes us to oversimplify sin’s muddiness by seeking trite answers for complex situations. Wise counselors and teachers recognize shame’s complexity, and they seek to understand the mud before laboring to clean it.

A few days ago, The Gospel Coalition posted an article I wrote about Three Kinds of Shame. I examine Jesus’ healing of the man born blind in John 9 to show the process of dealing with great shame. These three categories help us to sort through such shame:

  1. My sin against God
  2. Others’ sin against me
  3. The work of God in me

These reflections came out of a talk I gave in October at the DiscipleMakers Fall Conference.

At the end of the clip is a link to the complete talk recording.

Or, if you prefer the bite-sized article version, check it out here!

Memorize Chapters or Books Instead of Verses

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There’s no magic to memorizing long passages of Scripture. It takes hard work, but anyone can do it.

So writes Jemar Tisby in his excellent post entitled “How to Memorize Entire Books of the Bible.” Tisby believes God’s Word is powerful. Tisby claims God’s Word evokes a response. Tisby claims that God spoke his Word in books and not just in verses.

I’m inclined to agree with him on all points. Memory verses, without a clear accounting for context, are just as likely to lead us away from the truth as toward it.

And there’s no magic to memorizing long portions of Scripture. But I can attest to its value.

In the summer of 1997, on break from college, I gave myself to the task of memorizing Proverbs 1-9. A teacher at a Bible camp had inspired me with the incredible value of these chapters, so I determined to commit them to memory. Ever since, I’ve recited them about once per week.

Over these 17 years, my love for wisdom has grown more than I expected. Passages like Prov 5:7-23 and Prov 7:1-5 pop out when I face temptation. Prov 1:22 comes to mind when I’m making a dumb choice. Prov 3:1-12 always reminds me that honoring the Lord is worth it. Prov 2:6-11 comes to mind when I’m discouraged and feel like reminding the Lord (well, myself, really) of how he’s promised to work.

I’m not more noble or more committed or more righteous for having accomplished this feat of memory. Actually, I think the frequent repetition of these ideas makes me feel more dependent on the Lord than I would otherwise be.

And I’d have it no other way.

Check it out!

How Jesus Read the Old Testament

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Jesus read and studied the Bible, just as you and I do. He observed, interpreted, and applied the main points of each passage, just as you and I work to do.

One difference between Jesus and us, however, is that Jesus knew the entire Old Testament was written both to him and about him.

Nick Batzig, writing at the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, lists 10 implications of this fact in his recent article “How Did Jesus Read the Old Testament?” Batzig admits these are not the only 10 implications, but they get us started.

  1. Jesus understood that the entire Old Testament revealed that He would be the law-keeping Redeemer of His people.
  2. Jesus understood that all the promises of God were made to Him–first and foremost–as the Son of Abraham and Son of David.
  3. Jesus understood that the Old Testament spoke preeminently of His own sufferings and glories (1 Peter 1:10-12), as revealed by His Spirit through the prophets.
  4. Jesus understood that the Old Testament saints were not–first and foremost–examples of moral uprightness for fallen sinners to emulate, but were themselves sinners who were looking forward to Him by faith (Heb. 11).
  5. Jesus understood that all the Old Testament types, shadows and symbols pointed to some aspect of His saving work or benefits.
  6. Jesus understood that every prophecy was about Him.
  7. Jesus understood that He was the True Israel, who came to recapitulate Israel’s history for the redemption of His people.
  8. Jesus understood that His ministry was to be one of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the Good News of redemption to hopeless and helpless sinners.
  9. Jesus understood that all the festivals and feasts in the Old Testament were pointing forward to what He would accomplish in the work of redemption.
  10. Jesus understood that marriage was ordained at creation in order for Him to have a spiritual bride in the church that He would redeem.

This man, Jesus, understood the fulness of God’s revelation, and he bore the weight of fulfilling it. He did it so we might know him and have eternal life.

Batzig’s article explains each point in further detail. I commend it to you that you might grow in amazement and thanks for your marvelous Redeemer and King.

Check it out!

7 Mistakes in Women’s Bible Study

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I don’t claim to be an expert in women’s Bible studies, but I really appreciate what Keri Folmar wrote about them at the Gospel Coalition a few weeks ago. She lists 7 common mistakes we make in women’s Bible studies, which are:

  1. We lose sight of the goal
  2. We allow wrong answers
  3. We rely on the wrong materials
  4. We neglect the gospel
  5. We elevate method over meaning
  6. We jump to application
  7. We divorce study from the church

Under point #3, she writes:

The primary text required for a Bible study is . . . a Bible. There is nothing inadequate about getting together for a discussion through a book of the Bible with just a Bible. Study guides can help, but not all study guides are created equal.

The best study guides help women dig deeper into the Scriptures without spoon-feeding them answers before they have a chance to think for themselves. They are centered on God and cause women to know him better. They explain verses in context and encourage women to keep the big picture of the gospel in mind. The right guide will lead women to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his teaching. The fruit will be a deeper knowledge of the Savior that causes women to trust him more in their daily lives.

I made a similar point last week, and I don’t think women’s Bible studies are the only ones who can learn these things from Ms. Folmar. May we all learn to sit at our Savior’s feet.

Check it out!

 

Regular Bible Study May Keep You from God

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At the Desiring God blog, Marshall Segal recently wrote of “The Danger in Our Daily Devotions“:

If we carve out time to be with God in his book, we’ll be rewarded. But the rewards of our meditation — seeing more of God himself — can be surprisingly dangerous. Knowledge can corrupt and distract if we don’t know what to do with it. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Paul is clear that we can have “all knowledge” (1 Cor 13:2), but not love. And knowledge without love leaves us with “nothing” (1 Cor 13:2).

So how do we accumulate knowledge about God without ending up far from him? How do we keep our daily devotions from being (spiritually) dangerous?

How to Stay Christian in SeminaryHe then reviews a short book by David Mathis and Jonathan Parnell entitled How to Stay Christian in Seminary. Mathis and Parnell offer the following suggestions:

  1. Stay amazed at grace
  2. Stay dependent on God
  3. Stay focused on Jesus

Though the book’s title appears to focus on seminary students, I agree with Segal that these points are “undeniably relevant to anyone studying their Bible, whether for a focused, four-year degree or just in a regular rhythm of personal devotions.”

As you learn to study the Bible, does your study puff you up and so keep you from the Lord? Or does it help you to know God better?

Check it out!

HT: Ryan Higginbottom

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God’s Word is Powerful and Undefeatable

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Check out this reflection from Erik Raymond about the Word of God:

Because it is God’s word, it is an undefeatable word. The Bible has all the essentials of the life and power of God to do his work! Isaiah says that the word of God does not return void; it does his work, powerfully so. The Word of God is powerful.

Just think with me about a couple of implications here:

From the standpoint of your own sanctification or spiritual growth, you need this book every single day. You need to read it, meditate on it, memorize it, and delight in it. You need it preached each Lord’s Day and you need it singing in your head all day long. It is a powerful book.

Erik goes on to give further implications for evangelism and apologetics. Sometimes we’re so careful to defend the Bible that we fail to unleash its power in people’s lives. I say, let ‘er rip.

Check it out!