John Sott reminds me how tempting it is for me to read only passages that encourage and comfort me and not the ones that challenge and disturb me. In that sense I find myself merely reading the Bible instead of letting the Bible read me – reading what I want to read and saying what I want Scripture to say, when in reality I need to place myself under the whole counsel of God’s Word.
We come to our reading of the Bible with our own agenda, bias, questions, preoccupations, concerns and convictions, and, unless we are extremely careful, we impose these on the biblical text. We may sincerely pray before we read, ‘Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law’ (Ps. 119:18), but still the same non-communication may persist. For even that introductory prayer, though to be sure it is taken from the Psalter, is suspect because it lays down the kind of message we want to hear. ‘Please, Lord, I want to see some “wonderful thing” in your word.’ But he may reply, ‘What makes you think I have only “wonderful things” to show you? As a matter of fact, I have some rather “disturbing things” to show you today. Are you prepared to receive them?’ ‘Oh no, Lord, please not’, we stammer in reply. ‘I come to Scripture only to be comforted; I really do not want to be challenged or disturbed.’ –From “The Contemporary Christian” (London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1992), p. 190.
One way that I am helped in this is preaching through entire books of the Bible (rather than select passages), so that I must deal with the text as it is and as it follows what comes before and precedes what comes after. May God be gracious to me as he disturbs me and confronts my gospel negligence through his living and active Word.
brett eubank | unfinished 