We often say things like, “read your Bible every day and obey what you read.” But what if we don’t read the Bible daily?
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What if we don’t always want to read the Bible?
Have you ever struggled to get anything out of the Bible when you read it? Or maybe you feel as though you are getting something out of it, but worry that you’re interpreting it wrong. After all, there are so many different perspectives on interpreting the Bible, how are you supposed to know you are reading it the right way?
Few things feel more overwhelming than trying to wake up early to read a book you struggle to understand.
But it’s also sad how much Christians bicker over right beliefs. It’s sad how many of us fail to embody the love, grace, compassionate truth, and gentle healing of Jesus to the world around us. Of all the complexities of Scripture, the love of Jesus seems pretty clear.
How can we embody Jesus when we struggle to read his Word? If the same Spirit is in us that raised Jesus from the dead (Ro. 8:11), shouldn’t we feel a desire for reading his Message? Shouldn’t we be able to understand it without spending years in Bible college?
If you can identify with this internal conflict I need you to understand that you are not alone.
You are not the only Christian feeling the challenge of wanting to live faithfully for Jesus while struggling through the practices that conform us to his image.
But I also need you to understand something else. Part of why you struggle to want to read the Bible is because we as Western Christians have made it boring to read. We have misrepresented what this holy, ancient text actually is, turning one of the greatest stories ever told into a reference book. We have taken out adventure and mystery and replaced them with catalog theology.
I recently released my latest eBook, Reference Book Theology: Why We Struggle to Read the Bible and How to Discover Its Beauty Again. I’d like to give it to you absolutely free.
Throughout the pages of this eBook, we seek to peel back the mask we’ve put over the Bible and reorient ourselves around the glory and beauty of Jesus as revealed in this marvelous collection of writings we know of as scripture.
Download Reference Book Theology for yourself and begin discovering (or rediscovering) the beauty of scripture.
What are some of the biggest questions or obstacles you face when it comes to reading scripture? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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