Bible reading | Knowable Word

Read the Bible

January 15, 2014 By Peter Krol

A few weeks ago, I linked to my post at the Gospel Coalition with some advice to readers: Read the Bible. Along the same lines, this terrific article from Jim Elliff recommends heavy saturation in the Scripture:

No plan for Bible reading is a complete waste of time, obviously, but I’ve now come to believe there is a better way of thinking about Bible reading. I’m recommending immersion or saturation in one or two books of the Bible over several months as my preferred method. Frankly, I have never known Bible reading to be so transformative and interesting as with this method, both for me and for many friends who have tried it at my suggestion.

Elliff doesn’t necessarily suggest reading the entire Bible quickly (though he mentions the possibility), but he proposes immersion in a large chunk of text. Such immersion allows us to pickle in the very words of God and avoid three things that distract us from the text:

Devotionalism
Good books
Commentaries and study Bibles

I heartily concur! Devotion to God is important. Good books sharpen our thinking. Commentaries and study Bibles hone our understanding and help provide necessary background.

But too often, we allow such things to replace the Bible altogether. It’s like replacing the vinegar with orange juice and expecting the cucumbers to still taste good on a sandwich.

Elliff’s article is a little long, but it’s quite good. Check it out!

The 10 Most Biblical New Year’s Resolutions

January 1, 2014 By Peter Krol

After Friday’s year-end roundup, I’m on a top 10 kick. So here are 10 New Year’s resolutions you might want to try this year. They’re biblical, after all, but I take no responsibility for the outcomes.

Lori Ann of MamaWit (mamawit.com), Creative Commons

10. Drink water and eat vegetables. If and only if, by January 11, you are fatter, prettier, and smarter than the rest of your generation, keep it up (Dan 1:11-16). Otherwise, feel free to ditch the vegetables.

9. Do whatever Jesus would do (Matt 14:28-29, 1 Pet 3:18-20).

8. Husbands, always tell your wives what to do (Esther 1:10-12).

7. Act shrewdly enough that your potential enemies and your real enemies won’t be able to team up against you (Ex 1:10).

6. Wives, do whatever your husbands tell you to do (Acts 5:1-2, 7-10).

5. Dedicate to God whatever he brings your way (Judg 11:30-31).

4. Keep your hands to yourself (1 Cor 7:1).

3. Get more money, so you can answer everything (Eccl 10:19) and eliminate all pain and insecurity from your life (Luke 12:18-19, James 5:1).

2. Obey all the lesser-known, but not less important, commands of God, such as: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Drink, be drunk, and vomit'” (Jer 25:27).

1. Build something great for yourself (Gen 11:1-4).

Ridiculousness aside—as for me, I’m going to begin my annual blitz through the Bible. The dark winter months can be so discouraging for me, and the most effective treatment is to drown myself in Scripture to draw closer to its Author. Would you like to join me in a speed-read through the Bible this year? If so, check out my recent post at The Gospel Coalition: “A Bible Reading Plan for Readers.”

Reading the Bible in big chunks might help us not to take individual verses out of context.

What other “biblical” resolutions could we add to the list?

The Knowable Word is Not an Easy Word

December 18, 2013 By Peter Krol

When a few friends and I started this blog, we did so under the assumption that ordinary people can learn to study the Bible. God’s word is knowable, and you don’t have to be a superstar PhD theologian to learn to study it.

I retain that conviction as firmly as ever, though Trevin Wax recently wrote of a helpful qualification to this conviction.

“Stress the simplicity of the Bible,” he writes, “and the people you are hoping will read the Bible next year may begin to wonder if they’re just too dumb to understand it. I wonder if, in our efforts to get people reading Scripture, we might be minimizing the tough parts.”

I trust that in writing of how ordinary people can learn to study the Bible, I don’t unintentionally communicate that the Bible is easy. “There are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16, ESV). To avoid this danger, we must be taught and stabilized.

That doesn’t mean we should rely on the experts to tell us what to think. It simply means the hard work is all worth it.

I highly recommend the rest of Wax’s article.

Check it out!