Too often in today's Bible studies do we take the "Bible" out of the study and place our own lives into the topic of discussion instead. We ask questions like "how can I improve?" or "what can I get out of this reading today?" We rarely ask "what can I learn about God today?" or "what does God want to teach me about him and his word?" It's time to put the Bible back into Bible study
Now hear me out, think back to your last Bible study meeting or even daily/weekly devotional. Did you actually read scripture, from the actual Bible? Was the topic of study about God and who he is or was it about you and how you can live better as a Christian?
First of all, I'm not saying these devotional books or Bible studies you are doing are bad or you can't learn how to live as a better Christian. These are good tools and its important to know how to live in a way the glorifies God well. But we also need to make sure we are reading scripture and learning about God alongside those studies.
We are created in God's image and called to imitate Christ. To do this well, we first need to learn and study about who God is and what his character is like. His character is laced throughout scripture but can best be seen when we have a good overview of scripture and God's redemptive story.
Our approach to the Gospel message can even get skewed today (!!!- yikes rights?). We tend to romanticize the crucifixion of Christ as this heroic act of him dying on the cross for our sins. But this act was hard for Christ, the perfect son of God, and he didn't want to do it (Luke 22:42). The crucifixion process was horrific and painful. But he did it as an act of obedience to God the Father and as an act of love for us, his people. The true act of sacrifice for all. And let us not forget the resurrection! (I could go on and on...)
This post is a bit all over the place and I could spend more time refinding my thoughts and making more arguments but my main point to get you, whoever happens to read this post, thinking about the intentionality behind your studies and devotions. Are you taking time to learn more about God's character and action throughout history or are you viewing the Bible as a self-help book?
Disclaimer: I'm not perfect as balancing my studies and am definitely guilty of this. Just wanted to plant this seed of thought and make others aware of this trend in our evangelical worlds of Bible studies and devotionals.
-e.k.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. - 1 Thessalonians 2:13
Now hear me out, think back to your last Bible study meeting or even daily/weekly devotional. Did you actually read scripture, from the actual Bible? Was the topic of study about God and who he is or was it about you and how you can live better as a Christian?
First of all, I'm not saying these devotional books or Bible studies you are doing are bad or you can't learn how to live as a better Christian. These are good tools and its important to know how to live in a way the glorifies God well. But we also need to make sure we are reading scripture and learning about God alongside those studies.
We are created in God's image and called to imitate Christ. To do this well, we first need to learn and study about who God is and what his character is like. His character is laced throughout scripture but can best be seen when we have a good overview of scripture and God's redemptive story.
Our approach to the Gospel message can even get skewed today (!!!- yikes rights?). We tend to romanticize the crucifixion of Christ as this heroic act of him dying on the cross for our sins. But this act was hard for Christ, the perfect son of God, and he didn't want to do it (Luke 22:42). The crucifixion process was horrific and painful. But he did it as an act of obedience to God the Father and as an act of love for us, his people. The true act of sacrifice for all. And let us not forget the resurrection! (I could go on and on...)
This post is a bit all over the place and I could spend more time refinding my thoughts and making more arguments but my main point to get you, whoever happens to read this post, thinking about the intentionality behind your studies and devotions. Are you taking time to learn more about God's character and action throughout history or are you viewing the Bible as a self-help book?
Disclaimer: I'm not perfect as balancing my studies and am definitely guilty of this. Just wanted to plant this seed of thought and make others aware of this trend in our evangelical worlds of Bible studies and devotionals.
-e.k.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. - 1 Thessalonians 2:13
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