Hearing Jesus preached every sermon has impacted the way I read God’s word. Not until recently have I been amazed and actually had the thought “Wow! The bible talks about Jesus a lot!”
You see before this very deep revelation of mine ;), I’d read my bible differently. When I sat down to read my goal was to hopefully become a mature Christian some day. I knew God’s word was powerful in fighting off temptation. Therefore, I knew I needed it in my heart to be encouraged. “So what?” you say, “of course that’s why Christians read the bible!”
As good intentioned as that may sound, it’s wrong. Since I’ve been hearing the word and the gospel together each weekend, I’ve come to a different conclusion. I, the Christian, should be reading the bible to know Christ, my beautiful Savior, more. The truth is it’s not about me and how I can grow.
I was looking at Hebrews 12:1, 2 which says “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.” Think of it this way, we say “Hooray! Lets run the race!” But we can’t just run the race! We have see that the only way to run the race is by looking to Jesus who is the very reason we run the race for He is the founder!
It’s the kinda’ same with reading our bible. Sure we should read the bible! But not without Jesus in mind! He is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Surely not without seeking to be more of Him. To read the bible for the sake of becoming more a mature Christian would be a mistake. We need Jesus in every part of the equation!
God has used Christ-centered preaching to change the way I read His word and as I come to know Jesus more, I am seeing Him more in the Bible. It makes sense too; He is the reason of every passage!
I want to read the Bible, but not just for the sake of getting something out of it for myself and not seeing Christ in it. Reading our bibles must be done for the sake of coming to know Jesus and His beauty more and more.
Challenge: Read God’s word with the purpose of knowing Jesus Christ more.
So true though! I think that is so common when we first start reading the bible...when I first was a Christian I had come from being completely selfish and wanting to be better person. I knew church and the bible would make me a better person. But that ISN'T what it is about. Of course we strive to be like Christ and in turn we are better people-but the perspective about it needs to be off of ourselves and to Christ! Great blog :).
ReplyDeleteThanks Monika! Yea for sure, I've been reading the bible since I was 16, and it is something that I've just now started thinking about. It's all about Jesus!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and again, I'm so grateful that you are in a healthy church environment being fed by the Word.
ReplyDeletePS: I see you fixed your blog layout problems, very chic looking miss professional!