Devo 25
9/19/00
"The Greatest Book of All"
Wow! Guess what! This is my silver anniversary of sorts...number 25! You know, when I first started writing a year ago *sniff* I never could have dreamed *sniff, sniff* that it would...*I told myself I wouldn't cry...* And it all woulnd't have been possible...*sob*
Seriously though, thanks for sticking with me this past year. Several of you have let me know that you appreciate these devos, and I am honestly very humbled to hear that. Again, I feel I should repeat that if you ever find something you don't agree with, let me know as soon as you can (just reply to the email), I certainly don't want to foster any thinking in myself that doesn't hold with what the Bible teaches--because if I presume to teach others about Christ, I had better be sure that what I teach is pleasing to God. Anyway, thanks, and on with the show...
A couple weeks ago I started attending a Thursday night Bible study at my church. What I appreciate about this study is that the pastors seem actually intent on digging deep into the Bible. You might wonder that I sound surprised about this, and I am, though not in a bad way--I am all for a Bible study that will actually study the Bible. The format of this study will be two-parted, first a large meeting with all the participants, and then break up into small groups which can meet anywhere that the leaders of the individual groups decide. And though I'm not part of a group yet (that part doesn't actually start until this week's meeting--the last two weeks have been introductory), I will say that I have high expectations for mine. In short, I'm really excited about what this can become, and what it can mean to the people involved. Why? Because it's focused on the Bible.
It may seem obvious to you that a Bible study should be centered on the Bible, but that's not always been my experience. The college group I used to attend spent a lot of time discussing how best to minister to its college students. Key in these discussions were the roles of the Sunday Service, and the mid-week gathering. Were both needed? Should the Sunday meeting be more seeker sensitive--should the messages and activities there be more geared to the un/new believer? If so, what about the older Christians who need a little more substance? Maybe the mid-week meeting should be outreach oriented, and the Sunday morning meeting reserved for the deeper, meatier subjects. Where do small groups fit into all of this? Because of their smaller, friendly settings, shouldn't we be inviting unsaved friends to this non-threatening environment rather than thrusting them into an all-Christian environment? I don't think a satisfactory arrangement was ever reached. Though the Christian's personal relationship with God was deemed highly important, the focus really seemed to be on outreach. Even though this is in no way bad (my current college group is also heavy on outreach), outreach seemed to start dominating all the meetings. It seemed that the Sunday, mid-week, and even small group meetings were all becoming seeker-friendly and as a result, little time was being spent in the deeper issues.
I can't speak for all of the small groups, but I know in mine at least, not much time was spent in the Bible. Each meeting would start with us talking about how the week went--and on several occasions, this lasted the better part of an hour, sometimes longer. The Bible, and Christian matters were always key to the discussion, but as for real digging and searching for God's truths, that didn't always happen. A lot of times, when the Bible was discussed, it was in the context of "What stood out to you in your quiet times this week" and we would share a particular verse or passage that struck us, and then move on to the next person. What was wrong was that we were relating how the Bible related to us personally--which is good, but never made the step to finding out how a verse or passage related to us all as Christians. Can you see the distinction, because it's very subtle?
Our world today teaches that all truth is relative, and what applies to you, does not necessarily apply to me. I can have my beliefs and code of conduct, but I can't assume, or even demand that anyone else share these convictions. This being the case, any moral discussions or debates can never pass beyond, "What does this mean for me." To make the transition to 'What does this mean for us," implies a standard that holds to more than one person being therefore not relative, and as such having no place in our society. We need to be careful to not let this attitude creep into our small groups. What God has written in His word is not to be interpreted on an individual, by individual basis--that's how churches split. God has so much to say in His word, that to merely jump from person to person in the group and to never dig deep into a passage is like wandering though a book store reading only the first couple of sentences of each book, and then ignoring the masterpiece that follows. I'm not saying that God can't use individual verses to speak to different situations in a person's life, He does. But the Bible wasn't intended to be only a book of encouraging words and helpful thoughts to help or encourage us in our daily situations; the Bible was meant to be our guide to life and living. And yet I think that a lot of people (myself included) only read the Bible looking for a perspective to put on what has gone before. For instance a child who has experienced divorce, might find comfort in the description of God as a father; someone who has experienced inexplicable tragedy might find some comfort in the fact that 'God works in mysterious ways'. But how often do we read the Bible looking towards the future and God's desire for that? In other words, is the Bible merely your guide on how to react to any given situation, or is it your guide on how to live each day?
There is a vast difference here. Reading the Bible only as a guide for how to react implies that you are still exerting some kind of control over your life. When something doesn't happen the way you expected, you find a verse saying that God is in control; when something happens extraordinarily right, you find a verse saying 'Praise the Lord'. But still you live life like you think you should, and at the most, take an example from a person's life in the Bible for some current situation every now and then. But reading the Bible as a guide to life implies a total submission to God. It is looking to the teachings and examples contained in those pages and shaping your life to fit what it teaches. It is actively, daily, conforming yourself to the person and attitude of Christ. Reading the Bible should be proactive, not reactive.
When you read the Bible (and I need to work on this too) don't just read looking for an explanation for what has happened recently in your life. When you read, and study, look for what God is calling you do today, or tomorrow--and then do it. James 1:22 says, "be doers of the word, and not hearers only." There is a lot of comforting and encouraging words to be gotten from the Bible, but to stop there and not realize the incredible blessings God has for those who wholeheartedly and proactively seek to do His will, is to miss the point of the greatest book of all time.