Have you ever found yourself unable to remember what you read immediately after reading a passage of scripture? You were so checked out or disinterested that the words you read went in your eyes and out your ears.
Or even if you remembered what you read, there are a dozen different ways of interpreting the passage and you wondered how you’re supposed to interpret it correctly?
It makes reading scripture feel overwhelming when this sort of thing happens. And doubly so when it seems that so many Christians fail to embody the love, grace, compassionate truth, and gentle healing of Jesus.
You don’t want to be one of those kinds of Christians.
Maybe you’ve come to the place of thinking that understanding scripture isn’t the important thing. Faithfully embodying Jesus to the people around you is the important thing.
But how can you do that when you’re struggling to even engage scripture? Isn’t it through scripture that you learn of Jesus?
And why do you find it so hard to “get into” scripture?
If the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you, shouldn’t you feel excitement for immersing yourself in God’s Word?
Maybe.
I recently published a free eBook called, Reference Book Theology: Why We Struggle to Read the Bible and How to Discover Its Beauty Again.
In it, I discuss how there are many reasons why we sometimes feel disinterested in scripture. It’s not a sign of whether or not you are truly filled with the Spirit.
For instance, in the eBook, we discussed how we tend to approach the Bible as if it were a reference book. I used the analogy of mistaking a cookbook for a shopping list and how frustrating the experience would be if we tried to shop with a cookbook in hand.
We do a similar thing with the Bible. We think it should give us immediate answers for different situations we face in life. When it doesn’t, we feel overwhelmed and confused.
How are we supposed to embody Jesus when scripture never tells us how Jesus would handle the specific issues around race that we face today? Even something as seemingly simple as marriage (or divorce and remarriage) actually gets a little messy if you look at scripture closely enough.
What are we to do?
And that’s just it.
The Bible wasn’t written for us to merely use when needing to look up answers for difficult situations.
The Bible is a story.
It’s a story that communicates the wisdom and good design of God. Through the story of scripture, we get a full picture of Jesus, the image of the invisible God.
He is the one we are to emulate in our daily lives and through the medium of story, we internalize the way he looks at the world and the values that guide his actions.
But like all good stories, the Bible has a lot of moving pieces and various plots working together to communicate its core message. Understanding the story of the Bible takes some work, just like understanding Pilgrim’s Progress or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe takes reflection and investigation to fully grasp their meaning.
The Finding My Place in God’s Story course is an online experience that helps you better understand how to engage scripture so you no longer have those moments of spacing out as you read. It helps you better understand some of the larger conversations around difficult passages and why there are differing interpretations at times.
But this course doesn’t stop there.
It brings it home by helping you discover how God has gifted you personally to participate in his story. He invites you to play an active role in moving forward with his plan.
Click the button below to learn more about the course:
Now, you could continue reading scripture as you always have and hope that you’ll one day get more out of it. But chances are you’ll just keep feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. Eventually, you’ll probably end up no longer reading scripture.
But then you also begin to lose sight of Jesus.
Why not join a community of people journeying together as they discover the beauty of scripture and learn to more fully embody Jesus in their communities?
It doesn’t have to be a mystery or a frustrating experience. We’d love to have you with us! We’re here waiting for you.
Embodying Jesus happens as we internalize his word. Here’s to unlocking years of deeper communion with Jesus through a greater understanding of his message.
What are some of your biggest questions or frustrations when it comes to engaging scripture? You can share in the comments below.
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