A Pre-Chewed Banquet

This Sunday is week #2 of a 3-week series here at E-Free Church on the character of the Bible as seen in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 that we are calling "Word War Won."  My prayer is that our revisiting and nailing down that the Bible is unique, inspired and sufficient, that each of us will desire to read and study it more on our own.

Think of it this way.  Imagine with me that we are going to the greatest buffet imaginable.  Now this is a classy establishment.  A server takes your plate filled with your food and carries it to your table.  Then, before you have a chance to dig in, the server puts each piece of your food into their own mouth and chews it up 36 times and then spits it out on your plate.  Now your plate of delectable food is nothing more than a saliva-covered pile of mush.  Question, would you eat it?  With the exception of a couple of Junior High students that may be reading this, I doubt any of you would.  Why?  Because we would never even consider eating pre-chewed food.

However, for many Christians, that is the only way they ever eat spiritually.  They don’t study the Bible on their own; they just take in the pre-chewed food of their pastor, their favorite TV/radio preacher, or their favorite author.  Isn’t it time you learned to eat for yourself?  Here are some helps for you when it comes to reading your Bible so that you can learn to eat for yourself and not just take in the pre-chewed nourishment of others.

Read it continuously:  Don’t just read a chapter a day.  Pick a book or lengthy passage and read it non-stop from start to finish.

Read it repeatedly:  Don’t just read it once.  Take the same book or passage and read it every day for 7 days, 10 days, or even 30 days in a row.

Read it independently:  Commentaries and devotional guides are great tools, but before you read what others say about the Bible, first just read the Bible.

Read it prayerfully:  As you read, stop periodically and pray.  Describe to God what you just learned and ask Him questions about what you don’t understand.

Read it meditatively:  Don’t just read it…think about it throughout the day.  One of the best ways to do this is to memorize parts of the Bible on a regular basis.

Now that’s good eating!