TV Program

Current Episode

Feeding Your Soul

2006-05-14

PRODUCTION #: 1059

SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra

Most of us as Christians recognize that Bible study is very important. Yet, with our busy schedules, somehow we only sort of slip it in somewhere and never really get enough out of it.

Even when we do make time, sometimes we struggle to understand what we are reading or apply it to our lives.

I want you to stay tuned, because today I'm going to give you some suggestions that'll help bring new life to your Bible study and help you apply what you read in the Bible to build a more vibrant Christian experience.

The room was tense. Hearts were beating furiously, and every eye was on the German monk who had dared to challenge the world. How was he going to answer?

"Martin Luther, you have not yet answered the question. Give us a simple answer. Will you recant, or will you not?"

The short interval after the question must have seemed like an eternity to the people who were there. And the next words that came out of Martin Luther's mouth reignited a passion in the Christian world that had been buried for a long, long time.

"Unless you can convince me by Scripture and not by books or counsels who have often contradicted each other, unless I am so convinced that I am wrong, I am bound to my belief by the texts of the Bible. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Therefore, I cannot and I will not recant. Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me. Amen."

"Scripture," said Jesus Christ, "cannot be broken."

And the apostle Paul said (2 Timothy 3:16, 17):

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Several centuries ago, when Martin Luther stood before the council in the city of Worms, he reminded the Christian world that we have at our disposal an inspired source of authority for living. There is one book that has all the keys you need for a successful life, and that same book will carry you through to eternity. And even though it has come under constant attack since it has been placed in the hands of God's people, it has stood the test of time, and it is still as relevant and meaningful today as it was when it was first written.

This book literally has the power to breathe new life into your day-to-day existence. In fact, the apostle Peter wrote that we are changed by the Word of God, by the same power that first brought the universe into existence. Even Jesus Himself, who was God in human flesh, directed people's attention to the Bible, or at least the part of the Bible that existed back in His day.

In the book of Luke, we read about a couple of men who were depressed and dejected because their Master had been cruelly executed on a Roman cross. As far as they could see, all hope was gone. And then the resurrected Jesus appeared to them on the road to Emmaus, and He pointed them to the Word of God (Luke 24:27):

"And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

Now think about this: Here was Jesus, in the flesh, in person, but even though He was physically present with these two men, and He simply could have revealed Himself, He still chose to send these men straight to the Bible. Now that ought to tell us something about the Bible. It's not like other books. It isn't just one among thousands; it's different, because it has the power of a Creator God breathed into it a power that can turn your whole life around.

So you'd think that in the centuries since Luther reminded us of the importance of God's inspired Word, that we would have made a lot of progress in our devotion to it. And for a while that was true. With the invention of the printing press, Luther's work spread like wildfire around Europe, and people who had been spiritually starved for centuries, found new hope. The Bible became a centerpiece in Christian homes everywhere.

But then something changed. The enlightenment taught us to reason for ourselves, which was a good thing, but we took it a step further than we should have. We started to take everything we had learned in the field of critical thinking and then we sat in judgment on the biblical text. We began to decide when the writers of the Bible meant what they said and when they didn't, and we began to challenge the notion that God's book was inspired in the first place.

So what is wrong with that? Are we supposed to use our brains for every other area of life, but then check them at the door when it comes to reading the Bible? Well, of course not. There is nothing that demands more clear, analytical thinking than an hour spent in serious Bible study. Our thoughts and our intellect are not the issue.

There are just some things you are going to have to try before you really understand them. Those who come down hardest on the reliability of the Bible are usually those who have never given it an honest chance. They find some little hook to hang their doubts on, and from that point on, they begin to clip away at the Bible with their intellectual scissors until there is absolutely nothing left.

One of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, actually did this with the four Gospels. He decided that he would read through the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and decide whether or not each passage he read was authentic. In the end, he was left with what we call the "Jefferson Bible," a book that barely resembles the original because it is one man's opinion of what God should have said.

You know, some people are understandably horrified when they discover what Jefferson did with the New Testament. But to be honest, a lot of us have been doing the same thing with our Bibles, just in a different way. Instead of clipping and pasting our Bibles into a new format that suits us better, we take our personal agendas for the day and relegate the time we spend in God's Word, to somewhere between brushing our teeth and falling asleep. We push God's influence, His private time with us, all the way down our "to do" list until it falls in with all of the not-so-important activities of life.

Let's be honest. In the 21st century, we are no longer the spiritual giants our forefathers used to be, but we wander into a used bookstore sometime and pick up a volume of sermons written by the great Christian preachers of yesterday. And I think you'll notice something interesting, they were exceptionally biblically literate. They knew the Word of God inside and out. They could quote it from memory, and they still understood the irresistible attraction that made Luther willing to risk so much for God's book.

That passion for the Word of God has been lost for most of us. Our devotional life is remarkably shallow, and we can't really say that the Bible is a guiding influence in our lives, because we just haven't read enough of it for that to be true. We spend more time reading books about the Bible than actually reading the Bible itself!

And sometimes that happens because we find other books so much easier to read. Maybe you have tried to make more time for the Bible, but you don't seem to get all that much out of it. Or maybe you'll read a whole page and suddenly realize you don't remember a word of what you read because your mind has been drifting off on other subjects.

Today, I want to give you some practical principles that will help you get back on track, and restore the Bible to its rightful place in your life.

In another program, I gave many principles that will make your devotional life better. Today, I am going to repeat and expand on some of those, because I'm a firm believer that you can't spend too much time learning to study God's Word. If you take solid biblical principles and apply them to your study of the Bible itself, you can have a new vibrancy in your devotional life that will make you as passionate about God's word as a German monk at the Council of Worms.

Now, here are the principles. The first principle in breathing new life into your Bible study is one that I have pointed out before: Don't try to accomplish too much, especially as you are getting started.

Many people suddenly decide that they are going to read through the Bible over the next year, and they start a reading marathon that drops off somewhere in the middle of the Book of Leviticus. It is much better to pick a few verses and meditate on them than to leap over massive passages of Scripture in a single bound.

My wife and I used to try and plow through whole chapters and even books of the Bible in a single sitting, and that's good sometimes. But what we discovered is that when you try to accomplish too much at once, you spend more time thinking about your reading goals than the actual words of the Bible. We would read for an hour and come away having learned very little.

So, now we do things a little smarter, and it has made all the difference in the world. Each night, before we head off to bed, we read just a few verses together, and then we discuss what we've read and we pray about it.

It's a lot better to meditate on a few verses and apply them to your life than to read the whole Bible in a single sitting, even though that is a good idea once in a while, too.

But a few verses carefully thought through and applied to your life are going to make you love reading the Bible more, because day by day, you will see what a difference God's Word can make in your life. When you discover that God's promises are true for you, you are going to want to read more of them.

When you discover that the moral and ethical principles laid out in the Bible produce positive results in your life, you are going to find yourself eager to discover more of them. And when you start to see Jesus behind every chapter, every verse, every word, you are going to find yourself hungry for more Scripture.

Eventually, you are going to find that a few verses just aren't enough, and you'll keep on reading because you can't wait to see what else God has in store for you.

And that brings me to my second principle: Try to find a real way to apply what you are reading to your own life. Take the verse you are reading and make use of it in your life.

Let's suppose, for example, that you are reading this little passage from the book of Proverbs, which I actually read a little while ago in my morning devotions. Listen to what the Bible says (Proverbs 6:6-8):

"Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest."

When you are done reading through those few verses, ask yourself what principle is being taught. Well, to start with, these verses point out that the ant is hardworking, that it lays plans for the future, and that it doesn't need an overseer to be productive.

So you can take those characteristics of the ant you find in the Bible and compare them to your own life. Ask yourself, "Am I hard working, or do I kind of slack off on the job? Do I make wise plans for the future, or do I just live for the moment and make decisions based on gut instinct? And finally: Am I really a self-starter who gets things done without being asked, or do I need constant supervision to be productive?"

You see, those are really good questions, and they all came out of just one verse in the Bible! I'm convinced that if we would spend more time reading just a few lines and finding a way to apply them to our own experience, our lives would improve a thousand percent in pretty short order.

Our job, as we examine a passage of Scripture, is to look over our lives for that day and see where we can constructively apply the principles being taught. Pick just one thing and make a positive change.

Maybe when you get to work today, it's time to uninstall that game of Solitaire from your computer so that you are not tempted to waste productive time. Or maybe, when you have an opportunity, you could do something profitable for the company without first being asked. Whatever it is, take just one principle from your time in the Bible and create a strategy for implementing it that very same day.

What you will find is that reading the Bible becomes a lot of fun, because you are becoming a better person as you do it. Now, there is no doubt that you are going to misunderstand the occasional thing that you read, or that it can take some time before you actually see the benefits of making changes. But over the long haul, you will never be sorry you allowed the Word of God to chart your course through life.

If you just take what you are reading and find a way to apply it to your life, the Bible will become a living book for you, because it's being lived out in your life!

The third principle today is this: Find the cross in everything you read. There is a scarlet thread that ties the whole Bible together, and that's the blood of Christ. If you read carefully, you will find the story of Jesus and the plan of salvation in absolutely everything you read.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Right in the beginning of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, we read that Adam and Eve found themselves naked after they had sinned, so they made themselves garments out of fig leaves. Now I don't know if you've ever tried to stitch together a coat out of leaves, but one thing's for sure: It's not going to last very long.

And that's the picture of what happens when we try to solve our own sin problem. Man's righteousness is like a flimsy garment made out of leaves, and in no time flat, it falls apart, leaving us as miserable as ever. What we need is a solid covering.

And in the Book of Genesis, God provides that very thing for Adam and Eve. Listen to what it says in Genesis chapter three (Genesis 3:21):

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them."

When man couldn't find a decent solution to his nakedness, God provided something better. He gave Adam and Eve coats made out of animal skins, which would shelter them from the elements. But those skins came at a high price. Obviously, an animal had to die in order for Adam to be clothed. And it's right there that the cross of Christ rises to the surface of the story. Thousands of years before the Crucifixion, the human race was sheltered by a sacrifice, pointing us to the day when the Son of God would give His life so that we could wear a robe of Christ's righteousness.

Let me give you one more quick example of how the cross is found in nearly every story in the Bible. Later on in the Book of Genesis, Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his only son. The parallel to God sacrificing His only begotten Son is pretty obvious, but the more you dig into the story, the more and more the cross rises to the surface.

Consider, for example, the fact that Abraham took his son to the "land of Moriah," which was in the region of Jerusalem. The temple was actually built on Mount Moriah, and Jesus was crucified nearby. That means that whole story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac actually took place in the very spot where God's only Son would be sacrificed for the whole human race.

And if you read it carefully, you will notice more interesting details. Listen to this (Genesis 22:6):

"So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together."

Now, I hope you noticed something really interesting. It says that Isaac carried his own wood up to the sacrifice, and that is exactly what happened to Jesus, too. At the Crucifixion, He was forced to carry His own cross.

You know, the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, used to say that no matter where he started in his Bible, he always made a beeline for the cross. Every page, every chapter, and every verse is a revelation of Jesus Christ. Without the context of the cross and the plan of salvation, you will never find the biggest treasures in the Word of God, and you will never come to the truth on almost any subject.

Prayerfully search for the cross as you study, and you will be absolutely surprised by how often its shadow falls across your path and that is true for both the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament, the cross is foreshadowed and predicted, and in the New Testament, you find it revealed.

A good fourth principle is: Take serious notes as you study. A lot of people tell me that they have trouble getting anything out of their Bible study. "Pastor," they say, "some of these passages are just so long and boring!"

If you have ever suffered from that problem, try using a notebook to jot down your observations as you read. When you have questions, or something doesn't make sense, make a note of it. I think you will be surprised at how often the long, boring passages hold the key to answering your most important questions. Even the genealogies become really important, and eventually, you'll find that an hour a day just isn't enough anymore.

And if you are going to use a notebook, try something else. Try reading your Bible doctrinally. What do I mean by that?

In my office I have a bunch of three-ring binders with dividers into them. Each of those dividers represents a fundamental doctrine of the Bible, like "salvation," or "prayer," or "the Second Coming." As I read through the Bible, I jot down important passages of Scripture in the appropriate section of that binder, and by the end of the year, I've built a personal concordance to the whole Bible.

Now, I can't begin to tell you how helpful that can be. Sometimes, as I look at a section at the end of the year, I discover that I have had to change my mind about certain subjects more than once, because my preconceived notions didn't match what the Bible says over a wide range of passages.

Well, we are running out of time again, for today, but let me share one more important principle with you: Always, always, always let the Bible challenge your assumptions. When you are studying, assume that you are in a court of law where you have to prove to the jury that some fundamental principle of the Bible is true. This will force you to read the Bible from a new perspective, and will make you more prepared to share your Christian faith with other people.

In recent years, I have encountered an alarming number of Christians who seem to be somewhat embarrassed by their faith. I believe that, to a large degree, that's because they have never actually taken the time to prove the Christian faith to themselves from the words of the Bible. They hesitate to share their faith because they don't really know what they believe.

But if you study the Bible systematically and doctrinally every day, that kind of insecurity and embarrassment will vanish in the overwhelming beauty and consistency of what we believe.

There is another reason to study doctrinally, and it's this: A lot of us are quite sure of what we believe, but sometimes what we believe is nothing more than a thinly disguised paraphrase of our own opinion. We just use the Bible as a garnish for what we think, rather than letting it be the standard for what we will believe, and that is a dangerous position to take.

Really, the only way to grow is to be humble enough to challenge your assumptions from the pages of the Bible, and adjust your thought patterns as you discover deeper and deeper truths about the God we serve and love.

One of the best places to start in getting more out of your Bible is to ask God for help. So why don't we pray?

PRAYER:
Father in heaven, our deepest wish today is to be drawn closer into your presence. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for caring enough to give us a guiding light to help us find your Son and to find the way back home to you. I pray that everyone watching today will have a new fire ignited in their hearts, a new passion for you, through your Word. For I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

Scriptures Used in “Feeding Your Soul”

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
—2 Timothy 3:16, 17

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
—Luke 24:27

"Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest."
—Proverbs 6:6-8

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
—Genesis 3:21

"So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together." —Genesis 22:6