HOW DO I READ THE BIBLE BY MYSELF?

HOW DO I READ THE BIBLE BY MYSELF?

The following text is taken from several articles written by John Piper on his Blog “Desiring God.” This process of asking questions explains what I often highlight, circle, underline and write in my Bible as I read. The word is alive and active! Experiencing the liveliness of the Bible in our lives, our minds, our souls and our hearts is something God desires to give to us. It is a gift like no other! Here are some ways we can experience that and get the most out of our time reading.

*Ask questions to unlock the riches of the Bible.

When we read, we do not generally really think until we are faced with a problem to be solved, a mystery to be unraveled, or a puzzle to be deciphered. Until our minds are challenged, and shift from passive reading to active reading, we drift right over lots of insights.

Asking ourselves questions is a way of creating a problem or a mystery to be solved. That means the habit of asking ourselves questions awakens and sustains our thinking. It stimulates our mind while we read, and drives us down deep to the real meaning of a passage.

1. Ask about words.

Ask about definitions. What does this word mean in this specific sentence? And remember, we’re asking what the author intended by the word, not what we think it means. This assumes words will have different meanings in different sentences.

2. Ask about phrases.

A phrase is a group of words without a verb that describe some action or person or thing. For instance, “Put sin to death by the Spirit.” “By the Spirit” describes the activity. It tells us how we kill sin in our lives. Look closely at phrases like these and ask what specifically they’re explaining.

3. Ask about connections with other parts in the Bible.

We have to ask how the meaning we’re seeing in a passage fits together with other passages. Are there confirmations elsewhere in the Bible? Are there passages that seem contradictory or inconsistent?

When I feel tension between two verses or passages, I never assume the Bible is inconsistent. I assume I’m not seeing all I need to see. If I have not seen enough to explain the apparent inconsistency, asking more questions will likely help me see more. Few things make us deeper and richer in our knowledge of God and his ways than this habit of asking how texts cohere in reality when at first they don’t look like they do.

4. Ask about application.

The aim of biblical writers is not only that we “know,” but that we “be” and “do.” So we need to form the habit of asking questions concerning application. To us. To our church and our relationships. To the world. The task of application is never done. There are millions of ways a text can be applied, and millions of situations and relationships for them to be applied. Our job is not to know every application, but to grow in applying the meaning of Scripture to our lives.

5.  Ask about affections — appropriate responses of the heart.

The aim of our Bible reading is not just the response of the mind, but of

the heart. The whole range of human emotions are possible responses to the meaning of the Bible. God gave us the Bible not just to inform our minds, but also to transform our hearts — our affections. God’s word is honored not just by being understood rightly, but also by being felt rightly.

6. At every page, pray and ask for God’s help.

O Lord, incline our hearts to your word. Give us a desire for it. Open our eyes to see wonders there. Subdue our wills and give us an obedient spirit. Satisfy our hearts with a vision of yourself and your way for our lives.

Three Things to Remember When you Read the Bible

You can never just read the Bible.

There is something deep happening. It’s something more glorious than the universe. Whether you open these pages before dawn, over midmorning coffee, or at the dinner table with family, whenever you read the Bible something miraculous is happening. After all, you are not just any ordinary person, and the Bible isn’t just any old book.

You are, if you are trusting in Jesus, a redeemed son or daughter of God. The Bible is his very word. And yet, as clear as this is to us on paper and in theory, it can easily slip our minds when we step in and out of the normal routine of daily Bible reading. But it doesn’t have to. It shouldn’t.

There are 3 Huge things to remember when reading the Bible. It is obvious in many ways, but perhaps too often assumed — there is a God, he speaks through a Book, and he speaks to people like me.

1. There is a God.

This is first and foremost. God is real and mighty and intensely personal. In fact, he is God triune. He is the everlasting Father who has eternally loved his Son in the unceasing fellowship of the Spirit. And it is out of the fullness of the trinity that everything in this world exists. He made it all, and he condescended to his creatures in a covenant, revealing who he is and promising to always act as he has shown himself to be. More than that, he stepped into this world himself in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). All that God is dwelled in the man, Jesus (Colossians 2:9). To have seen Jesus was to have seen God (John 14:9). And right now, in the very moment of space and time when you hold the Bible in your hands, this Jesus is present with you by his Spirit. He is not distant and unconcerned with what you’re doing. He is working, listening, gladly leaning forward as the God who wants to be near you. Stop for a second then. Feel your heart beating. Take a deep breath. God is all over this. He is right here.

2. God speaks through his Book.

Yes, God speaks. That is how anything that was made was made. That is how he formed a people for himself. God spoke. He proclaimed his glory. He made known his ways. And in his infinite wisdom, he had his prophets and apostles write it down. He had what they wrote copied. He had what they copied preserved. He had what they preserved translated again and again and again.

And right now, right before you in full-book form, in a language you can understand, is the word of God. These are the thoughts of God. These ancient words, nothing less and nothing more, is what God has determined to say to his people across all generations and cultures of this earth. You are holding it in your hands.

3. God speaks to people like me.

There is God; there is his incomparable Book, and then there’s me. Me? This great, mighty, wondrous God who speaks great, mighty, wondrous words speaks them to me. God showed the biblical authors profound depths into the mystery of Christ, insights hidden for ages, things into which angels longed to look, and now, when we read them, God shows us (Ephesians 3:3–4; 1 Peter 1:10–12). The God who talked to Moses face to face as a man talks to his friend still talks to his people (Exodus 33:11). And now, by his rich mercy, because Jesus loved me and has freed me from my sins by his precious blood and by grace made me part of his people, God talks to me (Revelation 1:5–6).The one holding this book, sitting at this desk before God, is one who has been brought from death to life (Ephesians 1:4), one who was delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13–14), one who once was guilty but is now righteous (Romans 3:23–24), once defiled but now holy (1 Corinthians 6:11), once his enemy but now his child (Galatians 3:25). And God speaks to ones like this, ones like you and me.

This is as real as it gets. There is nothing more important or meaningful or relevant than for these three truths to converge, and for us to remember them: God, his Book, and his people.

You can never just read the Bible.