Spiritual Disciplines: What's Up With the Bible Reading?

If you want to know who Jesus is, you will find out in the bible.  He is way too awesome to explain in a few words.   Here is the problem.  See if you track with this.

Why do the police take a mug shot from different angles?

If someone asked you to describe this unbelievable weapon we have to defend our country, what would you tell them about how it looked?

You following this?  You would describe it from what you saw.  What view or perspective did you have?

Jesus is much more complicated than public enemy#007 above or the stealth fighter.  In order to know who Jesus was you have to find out by reading the bible.

You have to study Jesus from different angles. 

There are four gospel writers in the bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They all describe Jesus from a different angle.  By the way if you want to introduce the bible and Jesus to a new believer, there are two gospels for a not-yet believer and two for a believer.  Be sure to pick the one for the reader you are trying to reach.

Gospel Writer        Best suited for        Jesus is...

Matthew                 Believers                  king of the Jews

Mark                       unbelievers              Son of Man, took action to show who He was

Luke                       unbelievers              Savior of the world

John                       Believers                  Son of God

·         The bible is not a book.  It is a library of books.  66 of them.  When you read the bible read a whole book at a time.  Resist jumping around. Scripture passage here, scripture passage there. Not good.  You can use verses of scripture to prove anything.  There is even a phrase in the bible that says “there is no God”…Can you find it?  If you had a stack of Star Trek books that your older brother left you, would you read one page out of Invasion, and a paragraph from Day of Honor, then jump to the first paragraph on page two of the Dominion War?  You couldn’t make any sense of it.  Trekkie or not.

·         Stay with one book.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you understand it.  Read and reread it again.  Don’t jump around.  The Holy Spirit had a specific audience and purpose in mind for each book.  Nail that down.  And you will begin to understand who Jesus was.  God wanted a bigger family. Check it out in the book of Genesis. God created us to be like Him.  To be like Him, you have to think like him, act like him and pray like He did.

·         Repeat….God created us because He wanted a bigger family.  He wanted all of us to be like His Son. That is the journey you get on when you start the process of salvation. You will arrive when you get to heaven.  That is when you will be perfect.

·         So that is why you want to read the bible.

·         CHALLENGE for you: the bible says God, and I bet His Son, whistles. Where does it say that? I'll give you a hint - It's in one of those 66 books - Isaiah.  Go find out for yourself.  The first three who send YFA a text with the exact verse will get a "cool prize."

Here's the YFA number: 423-521-0455

Matt Galas, Sunday School teacher Burks UMC