Your word is a lamp before my feet
Psalm 119:105
and a light for my journey.
There is a lot I want to share today. But let’s keep this short and aim for brevity. Besides, if you want more there are books (in this case Chapter 5 of 10 Life-Charged Words) or – if you are a guy – showing up for Tuesday morning Bible study at HMPC.
This morning there were 23 of us around the long table, and our word for the day was “Scripture.” Yes, I know, that’s a big subject!
We had an excellent conversation where many of the men shared how they are inspired, and taught, and renewed and guided via their relationship to the Bible. They were – they are – inspirational to me.
Rather than try to rehash this morning, I want to rest our attention on what I shared at the very beginning. It’s a paragraph I scribbled down while the other guys were pouring their coffee and grabbing a seat.
“We are not here today to debate if the Bible was literally dictated by God,” I said, “or if it is simply the inspired word, or if it is inerrant, or infallible, or any of the other interesting scholarly distinctions. Instead, we are here this morning to talk about the Bible’s power, its authority, its wisdom, its deep truths and its proven effectiveness in our lives as Christian men.”
derekmaul.blog
Because the reason a growing number are making Tuesday morning Bible study a deliberate part of their routine is the following truth, pointed out by the Psalmist: When we delight in the scriptures, when we meditate on God’s good word, we are refreshed and nourished and more.
their delight is in the law of the Lord,
Psalm 1:2-3
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
There are many ways to engage with the Bible, the important point is that we do. Personally, my day by day reading includes all of the following:
- Daily “verse of the day” email
- Bible reading and prayer at breakfast with Rebekah
- A devotional guide (such as the daily church Lenten study, starting tomorrow)
- Finding scriptures to include in my writing (again, several times a day)
- Scripture that is quoted in books I am reading (such as 10 Life-charged Words)
- The Bible as a reference book when something causes me to think about, and then look up, scriptures
What’s important is that this is not mere happenstance. I am deliberately looking into and studying God’s good word as a routine and intentional aspect of my growing and changing spiritual self.
When I read scripture, I try to do – and recommend this to you – the following:
- Meditate – quiet my mind and make space for God
- Pray – ask the author to guide and instruct and inspire me in my reading
- Read
- Try to read in context: learn what was happening, what came before, and what happened next; try to understand the history and the culture and the point of view of the writer; learn the who what when where and why.
- Meditate again – let it soak in and ask yourself “So what?”
- Pray again – ask God to equip you to live in the light and the truth and the opportunity that the scriptures present.
- Live in response – “live into” the scripture. Understand that we are players in this ongoing Greatest Story Ever Told.
Like I said, these men inspire me. “Heaven and Earth will pass away,” Jesus said; “but my words will not pass away…” (Luke 21:33)
In love, and because of love – DEREK