Bible Intake 1

The Life Abundant

an introduction to the spiritual discipline of Bible intake

Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB95)
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.1

I chose to start here, with Bible intake, because it is an obvious place to start and because, of the disciplines we are going to cover, this one is easiest for me. I call it my speciality. But first, let's review. What do we know so far, so far as this idea of discipline is concerned?

Right, they are to know God better, not to be better (we can never be good enough), or to be able to hold our heads high and say, “At least I'm not him.” They are something that is often overlooked these days, but, like a runner has to train to run the mini, so we have to train to better know God.

So, we're off to Bible intake, or the reading, study and memorization of, and mediation on the Bible. Let's read 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

What does this mean? Right, just as it says, and my favorite parts are: God breathed and so that we may be equipped for every good work.

Let's talk a minute about why Bible intake is important. Why is it important to read God's word? To study it? To memorize it? To meditate on it?

It introduces to and helps us to better know and better know and grow close to God. It answers our questions about who this God is, what he has done, and what he expects from us. If our goal is to know God, we must spend time with the Bible.

Many of us have grown up around the Bible. Since our early days we have heard it said that the Bible is the Word of God. What does this mean?

Let's read John 1:1-5, 17:17 and 1 Peter 1:23. What does this tell us? Is there any more we need to know about God's word? What is it?

The Bible is God's word, true enough, but it was also written by men. What does this mean for us?

If we do not remember this, we become Biblical Docetists, completely neglecting the human aspect of scripture. Many people today have this view and do not even know it.

Effects of Biblical Docetism:

• Randomly opening the Bible and seeing what God has to say.

• Thinking every Scripture applies to you (2 Chronicles 7:14).

• Believing that the chapter and verse numbers are inspired or that only one translation is inspired.

• Believing that the canon order is inspired.

• Neglecting the personality of the writer.

• Neglecting the rules of interpretation demanded by the type of literature represented.

• Believing that if it is in the Bible, it must be true.

• Over literalization of Scripture.

• Not taking into account the progress of revelation (we know more than Peter did, and he knew more than Moses, etc).

It has been called the “evangelical heresy”2. Let's look at some examples.

Have you ever heard your mother say something like, “Why don't you just jump off a bridge with your friends?” What does this mean? Let's read Matthew 5:29,30. If you notice, we all seem to have our eyes, so what is the deal? Are none of us followers of Christ?

What if this were in the Bible, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime”3? Is this always true, or necessarily true? Remember, it's in the Bible. No, I could teach you to fish and you could refuse, still needing fed. Read Proverbs 22:6.

What about this one? It is in the Bible, you just read it. Is is always true?

Listen to this:

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I've eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there's no getting off.4

What is this poem about? Is it really just a work on elephants, houses, a melon and all that? No, it's about her being pregnant. Read 1 Corinthians 12:14-27. Are we really the parts of Christ? Am I his big toe, the bottom of some super-Christ that will one day join together like Voltron and save the world? No, it is metaphor, a way of explaining something that is hard to understand, and the Bible is full of such poetic use of language.

The Bible has many different Literary styles and many different authors. It is a fallacy to believe that each scripture is the same, that each is like a word form God spoken directly to us at that moment and is spoken in a literal sense. There are stories, histories, genealogies, image-filled prophecies, poems and hymns, proverbs, prayers, parables, laws, and letters. It is written by shepherds and vigorous students, fishermen and doctors, kings and peasants, pastors and lay people. To ignore this is to treat the Bible as some sort of magic book and expects it to do things that it is not intended to do.

There is one more warning. We have to be careful about discerning what the Bible really says and what we think it says. What do I mean by this? Read Mark 16:14-18. What is this? Why don't we do these things today? Is it because it is not for us, only for the eleven disciples there? Now read Matthew 28:16-20. What is this? Isn't it the same thing? But why do Christians (especially missionary organizations) site this as the reason for their efforts to evangelize? If those words are to them, surely they should be healing and unconcerned about snake bites, as well. See what I'm getting at. We need to be clear on what the Bible says, what it doesn't say, and which parts apply to us. We cannot just pick and choose what we want to follow and what we don't. We need to struggle with some of this, to wonder why we can't heal or who God is or what salvation really means and what is doesn't.

Now, on to the specific parts of this discipline.

First, there is hearing and reading the Bible. Why? What good is that? Why is it necessary? This is the easy one. Reading or listening to the Bible is the least demanding of the parts of Bible intake, but also the foundation. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus counters Satan by saying that man doesn't live on food, but on God's word. To simply read the words doesn't necessarily change your life, bring you closer to God, but without it you cannot continue the discipline.

What about study? Why is it important? Why can't we simply read and be done with it? No. We have to discern the type of literature that we are reading, who wrote it, to whom, when and where. We have to then compare it to other scriptures, to tradition, experience, and reason. We need to be able to extract the principles that lie within the Word. In short, we have to understand what it is that we are reading. This is obvious, you would think, but many people stop at going to church and hearing the word or at reading it.

What about memorization? Why is this an important part? Can't we just study it? Read Psalm 119:11. Now, this is a poem, not a promise, but the idea rings true. What is in your heart, what you know is what comes to mind in times of trouble. You know how some people (myself at one time) don't usually swear, but once they hit themselves with a hammer all bets are off? That is what is in their heart. That is what they know. When you have hidden God's word in your heart and trouble times come along what comes out are the truths you have memorized. Once you have read it and understood it and memorized it, the Word of God lives within you.

And meditation? Isn't that just some new age mumbo-jumbo? What good is meditation? There is a practice called lectio divina, or spiritual reading. This is how it has been described:

“Reading, as it were, puts the solid food into our mouths, meditation chews it and breaks it down, prayer obtains the flavor of it and contemplation is the very sweetness which makes us glad and refreshes us.”

From European monk Guigo II in reference to the practice of lectio divina or spiritual reading.5 In his intro to The Message Remix, Eugene Peterson words it this way: Read, Think, Pray, Live. This is meditating on God's Word. You know it, know what it means, the context and have hidden it in your heart. Now you must apply it to your life. You must begin to live out what you know. The meditation is the rolling over the the truth in your mind, asking how it applies to you, struggling through the difficult things. It's like a dog chewing on a bone, licking off all the flavor, sniffing it, carrying it around, burying it, and digging it up.6

The Bible is God's Word. We need to read it, to know it, to understand it, to treasure it, and to live it. We want to know God. God reveals himself in his word. John 8:31-32 says,
“31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'”7 You are my disciples, you will know the truth. I am the way , the truth, and the life. You will know me and I will set you free. The bible is the story of God. He is the hero and to better know the Hero and his story we have to practice the discipline of Bible intake.

Next week we will look at prayer and fasting and how these things can bring us closer to God, closer to knowing Christ. In the spirit of Bible intake, I have homework for you. Read Matthew 6: 1-24. Find out who is speaking, to whom, what type of writing it is and what it means for us today. Memorize verse 6. Meditate on the passage, think it over, apply it to your everyday life. See you next week.1 New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

3Chinese Proverb

4Metaphors – Sylvia Plath from The Collected Poems Published in 1959

5Eat This Book Eugene H. Peterson – Eerdman's 2006

6Eat This Book Eugene H. Peterson – Eerdman's 2006

7 New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

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