Why do we need the Bible? So, we can know God and his ways. Why do we need to know God and his ways? So, we can love him and others better, and so we can experience the incredible life God has planned for us. God wants to bring us into an intimate relationship with him. He wants us to know about life and how to live it maxed out. He also wants to tell us about the future, and how we can prepare for it and eliminate fear of it. He tells us all that and more in the Bible. All of that, however, hinges on understanding the Bible correctly.
In a recent Reverse Why-Fi survey in our church, we found that 90% of people attending said they don’t read the Bible regularly because they are not motivated or they don’t understand how to do it. I think most people are motivated to understand the Bible, but that dissipates as they try and fail. Who wants to keep reading a book that makes no sense to you and seems irrelevant? But, if you learn to understand the Bible, your hunger (i.e., motivation) grows.
Howard G. Hendricks, well-known conference speaker, author, and Christian education expert, talked about three stages of attitudes toward Bible study:
1. The “castor oil” stage—when you study the Bible because you know it is good for you, but it is not too enjoyable. Apparently, castor oil was some nasty medicine-type gunk back in the olden times.
2. The “cereal stage”-when your Bible study is dry and uninteresting, but you know it is nourishing.
3. The “peaches and cream stage”—when you are really feasting on the Word of God.
Maybe, if you work at it, you can get to that “peaches and cream stage” stage pretty quickly—or, for me, the “brownies-with-tin roof-ice cream-dripping-on-top” stage. Mmmm, gotta go study.
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