Fallen and Flawed

A couple helpful things I’ve learned from others about reading Scripture:
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1. Read for depth rather than breadth. Let the word marinate into the deep recesses of your soul and change your heart, not just puff up your knowledge.
2. Read for breadth as well. It can also be beneficial to roll through a few chapters, a whole epistle, or big chunks of the gospel in one sitting. Mix it up depending on how the Spirit leads you.
3. Pray before reading that God might open His word to you and show you what He wants you to see and understand. Don’t just go in alone. Ask God to meet you in that place and let His Spirit reveal the word to you more fully. Do this every time you open the Bible.
4. Treat Bible reading differently than book reading. Bible reading is communion with the living God of the universe. He is there with you, speaking to you directly. His word is active. Invite Him into your daily meditations on the word. Don’t think it’s just you and some sentences on a sheet of paper. It’s the majestic Father in heaven talking to you in person, and His presence (and the depth to which you allow Him in) will shape the richness of your time in the word.
5. Try to memorize at least one verse every morning and carry it with you throughout the day. You might forget it by the next morning, but it’s amazing how the word of Christ dwelling in you will shape your thoughts and actions for the entire day.
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There’s certainly lots more to say on this, but I’ll stop hogging the comments

A missionary who used to visit me gave me a pamphlet and I promised to read it. It was a simplistic piece of badly written glurge*, but I trudged through it. Then I got to a part that made me sit up and pay attention.
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It said something like this:

Only those who are born again can understnad the holy scriptures.

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I couldn’t believe it! The bible tells us how to receive forgivness, but you have to be saved to understand it in the first place! Talk about the circular reasoning.
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The bible is just words. Right? Really, there’s nothing sacred about the book itself. It’s just a collection of paper and glue. The words are in a language that people speak and understand. So, what’s so magical about the words that you have to be in some kind of trance or “holy” attitude to understand it any better than someone with a good command of the language it’s written in. Does the meanings of the words change because you have been saved? I don’t get it.
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* Am I the only one who has noticed that many of these pamphlets are written as if geared for an audience of below average intelligence? That pamphlet was so simplistic that I was offended that the writer didn’t think that I could understand complex ideas. I actually forced myself to read it, because I promised the missionary that I would.

Well, if you haven’t learned by now, I seem destined to play Screwtape, niggling away at the soft underbelly of Demian’s presentations. Not as an unbeliever, of course, but rather as a believer cautious of leaving too much navigable space around comments that are ripe to be misconstrued. The comment du jour is:

make the sacrifice and you’ll re-discover the lost art of meditation.

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Those familiar with the “meditation” of eastern religions and much of today’s pop psychology will immediately flash on the concept of assuming some physical position, e.g. the lotus, and emptying one’s mind of all conscious thought, or of concentrating on a single focal point, perhaps aided by some kind of repeated mantra or chant. But those ideas are perversions of the biblical meditation to which Demian refers.
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Noah Webster, in 1828, defined MEDITATION thus:

n. [L. meditatio] Close or continued thought; the turning or revolving of a subject in the mind; serious contemplation.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Ps.xix

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Where today’s popular forms of meditation seek to open the mind to many possibilities, biblical meditation is focused on the very words of God, with the single aim of being instructed ever more deeply by Him. Speaking with great bias from personal experience and desire, it doesn’t get better than this!
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I will roll on to comment on Ryan’s delightful comments:

…depending on how the Spirit leads you.

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The above phrase, common to Christians’ conversation, is rooted in such NT quotations as Paul’s, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Many volumes have consequently been written on how one is to recognize God’s leading and follow it, but the process is meaningless to those who do not know Him.
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Now, having attempted to shore up their most vulnerable points (as I view them), let me thank you both, Demian and Ryan, for you words of great encouragement to me and, I’m certain, to many others. God bless your labors…

I agree with Ryan’s depth not breadth direction. I’ve gotten the most out of meditating on Scripture; an old fashioned concept but one that enables you to hear God best from his Word. I think all the new tech applications related to the Bible are great but we need to be careful not to lose the Bible meditation heart beat in the process.

Thanks for your shoring, Al. Makes my life easier. I don’t have to be so careful. [Just kidding! Just kidding!]
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Robert, I get insulted by some of the low-grade fluffy stuff out there, too. Like The Shack. [Did I say that out loud?]
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Whitney…you bring up a good point about technology…but I do think it’s a matter of preference.

Ryan, Nice follow up. Solid advice.
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Robert, you said, “Does the meanings of the words change because you have been saved? I don’t get it”
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The short answer is, yes, they do. The Bible is at its essence a spiritual book, not “mere words,” as you’ve stated, but words written by men influenced by the Holy Spirit. As such these words are quickened and made alive by the Holy Spirit. However, the Spirit can open the eyes of non-believers as well as believers as they read the Bible. You don’t need to be a believer to have this happen, as it happened to me. But after becoming a believer, more of the Bible came alive to me because now this spiritual book was being opened to me by the Holy Spirit who was now indwelling me.
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That’s why you “don’t get it.” But you can “get it” if you really want to. And you already know how.
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As for me, my own Bible study habits have changed somewhat over the last couple of years. I signed up to receive the Back to God Hour’s daily devotional, called “Today,” http://backtogod.net/
(I got to know them as they were a former client.)
This arrives in my email every morning and in addition to a particular verse, there are a couple of paragraphs written by a different author each month reflecting or expounding on the verse. As these verses are linked to Biblegateway(http://www.biblegateway.com/) I will often follow the link and explore more of the text or the chapter. This all prompts me to pray some and sets up the day for me.

Once I heard someone say that we should read the Bible like a love letter, not a textbook.

Jana, what’s reading the Bible like a love letter look like? Not sure I’m following.

I have a problem.i ve’ got this girl i realy love but the problem is she is not a believer.i really want to change this person because i keep falling into her trap but i want her to be a christian.she is too wild. In short i need very strong bible verses and words to draw her close to God.its urgent

Samalani: Do you want her more than Christ?