September 18, 2012

“How?”

Yesterday, we talked about the basic fundamentals of why we should come to the word of God daily for life and for our work.

Today, we’d like to talk about how to do this in the most beneficial way according to the Bible.

The point of the exercise is to spend meaningful time in the word of God so that you may know what it says, believe it, and obey it.

Method: Meditate and write, and write as you meditate all the while being prayerful.

The Bible does not say that you must meditate while writing. There were probably many who couldn’t even write. However, the Bible does emphasize writing as an important way to meditate on the word of God. Let’s look at a few passages.

1.  Exodus 17:14. “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered.”

          Writing is a good way to commit his words to memory.

2.  Deuteronomy 6:8-9. “Tie them [God’s commands] as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” They had to decorate their bodies and their houses with God’s words that they wrote down. You didn’t buy them as accessories at a department store, you wrote it down and decorated yourself and your house.

3.  Deuteronomy 17:18. “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the word of this law and these decrees...” Kings also wrote down the word of God for meditation purposes, to commit the word of God to his mind, heart, body and soul. Consider those kings who didn’t write it down or meditate on the word of God. The common testimony about them is: “They did evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

4.  Deuteronomy 27:3. “Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you...” Writing down with the same point: to know God’s word, to remember it, and to obey it.

Writing down is a specific way God asked his people to remember his words, learn them, and commit them to their heart, mind, soul and body. Since we can see that he required it in these kinds of situation, he is telling us that it is good. We can think of it as more than just as an exercise. So, it will take time. It will take effort. But it is God’s way. In these situations writing down and learning God’s word was the requirement, not a suggestion. (But today, it is our suggestion to you based on these passages.) There is something very valuable in writing. It helps us to think about it much better than just sitting and thinking about it.

Our writing then should be purposeful. Let’s consider Provers 2:1-2.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

(1)  Accept and store up: Learn what the word of God says--knowing and remembering the literal story and what’s happening in the passage. [What]

(2)  Turn your ear to wisdom: Learning the meaning through the story / words (e.g., what it teaches us about Jesus) [Why]

(3)  Applying your heart: Means to apply yourself to the passage’s teaching. [How]

We have many resources in coming to the word of God. The most accessible is the daily bread booklet which has summaries, a prayer, one word, and suggested key verse. This can be good. My suggestion is: don’t read it. Don’t read the summaries. Don’t even look at what the suggested key verse is. Don’t read the prayer, one word, or title--until you’ve finished your own meditating and writing time.

When we read those kinds of things first, before going to the passage, we will already look at the passage according to the interpretation and suggestion of the daily bread book. We need to spend our own time to meditate, to think about what it is saying, to turn our ear to wisdom, and to see how to apply our hearts to understanding.

It is like eating. Food is not enjoyable if something else has already eaten it for you. Also, we are not birds who need a mother to chew and digest it for us and then give it to us to eat. After you’ve eaten, then it can be beneficial to see what others may have to say about the passage or even to compare what you wrote with theirs and learn even more. But each person should spend the sufficient time on their own with the word of God. Just you and the word of God. After that precious time, then you invite others to the eating fellowship. Others may have written something very good. Mother Barry or Dr. Lee may have written and expounded on the passage well. But surely Mother Barry or Dr. Lee would not approve of you substituting your own meditation and writing time with their meditation and writing time. They would be doing a disservice to you if that were the case. We need to come to the word of God first.

When we have the word of God stored up in us, we can bring out treasures later and it can grow. Please consider Mark 4:26-29.

[26] He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. [27] Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. [28] All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. [29] As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

For this to happen, the word (the seed) has to get into the ground (your heart and mind).

In this way, the point is to get the word of God. I would suggest that what you write has this kind of ratio: 85% about the passage and its teaching(s), and 15% about applying yourself. If not, 90% and 10%. However, don’t neglect applying your heart to understanding. In 2 Timothy 3 we learn of people who do this and ends up making them so corrupt. 2 Timothy 3:7, “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”

You have heard the phrase, “How does this passage apply to you?” I suggest, rather, that we ask ourselves, “How can I apply myself to this passage?”

The first phrase, “How does this passage apply to you?” is biblically backwards, according to Proverbs 2:2, “apply your heart to understanding.” Thinking how the passage applies to us makes us the center, rather than God and the wisdom in the passage. It tends to limit what we understand of the passage and how to apply it properly. We do this making our situations match that of the Bible passage.

For example, if we read the parable of the prodigal (the lost) son, and think, “How does this passage apply to me?” We usually write a testimony about how we once were lost or of how we may be lost in some way. We stretch and contort circumstances or situations to match. But when we do this, we miss out on the richer meaning and direction of the passage. And it limits the meanings and applications to just my situation and circumstance today. And then we don’t have the treasures for tomorrow as well as today.

How did your testimony writing for the 2 Timothy passages go? Did you make the passage fit you, or did you apply yourself to the wisdom of the passage? If we apply ourselves to the passage, then the word of God can grow and bear much fruit today and tomorrow, for us and to others. The passage should light your feet and guide your path. learn the word. Then you can know what to do. Start with the passage. Then apply yourself to it.

Most importantly, we have to learn of Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15 says that “the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” And Jesus said that the Scriptures “testify about me” (John 5:39).

This is especially important when passages, such as Old Testament passages, are difficult to understand. As a general kind of rule, whenever a passage is difficult, think about Jesus.

We recently studied the books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. These can be very difficult to study on their own. Ecclesiastes could be depressing and Song of Solomon could be too sensual. For example, Ecclesiastes 8:7-8 says,

[7] Since no man knows the future,

    who can tell him what is to come?

[8] No man has power over the wind to contain it;

    so no one has power over the day of his death.

As no one is discharged in time of war,

    so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

When we think about Jesus, we can remember the passage about him that says,

[39] He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

[40] He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

[41] They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:39-41).

It says here that Jesus has power over the wind! And he has power over the day of his death. He was raised just as the Father commanded him. When we think about Jesus, we see that the book of Ecclesiastes was looking for and speaking ahead to Jesus. He can control the wind. He has power of death. He can release people from the power of wickedness, of sin and death. He knows the future and can tell us what is to come. So he said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

In preparing this workshop, someone asked, “But what can you do when you get in a rut and just can’t do daily bread?” Many times we know that we should do it, and we want to, but for some reason we find that don’t. We get in a rut and stop altogether.

My main suggestion in this case is to get a partner or two. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

I have experienced this first hand many times. As I shared already, I could start and continue daily bread for 2 years because of the commitment to my wife. Also, last summer, I shared daily bread with two brothers. One of those brothers also wrote daily bread every day for 1 year, without missing 1 day. Daily Bread changed my life in terms of my attitude and relationship with my wife, with my coworkers, with my neighbors and with God. I despised my neighbors. They double or triple park. They don’t scoop up their dog’s poo right away. But Provers 14:21 said, “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy.” I was made at them, but I realized that I was the one sinning! It was a shock. I should have been kind and saw them as needy people.

Concessions:

This is not the only way to meditate on the word of God. However, we do make this suggestion according to the Bible’s own advice on meditating on God’s word.

Also, this is not the only kind of meditation one should do. Using the example, again, of a loaf of bread, if you only saw slices of bread every day, it would be difficult to imagine what the loaf originally looked like. In the same way, we come to the Bible in small passage and learn, and we also need to big studies and meditations to see the Bible as as a whole with a message. For example, meditating on what the entire book of Genesis is talking about. And then, thinking about parallels in the books of Genesis and Revelation. But for daily eating, we need to do daily bread and come to God's words. You, plus the bible, plus writing, plus everyday.

In conclusion,

Writing -- in 3 parts:

1)  “Accept and store up”: Learn what the passage literally says.

2)  “Turn your ear to wisdom”: Learn the teaching of the passage.

3)  “Apply your heart to understanding”: apply your to obey the passage’s teaching

Provers 2:1-2.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

When we do this we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Let’s read 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

“[16] All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”