Devotionals and theological books are great, but let's not forget we also need to read the Bible!
There’s something terribly déjà-vu about polls that claim to reveal a decline in personal Bible reading amongst God’s people, not least those who claim to be card-carrying evangelicals. There’s nothing new in this phenomenon. We may claim to have a high view of Scripture but as so often happens with Christians, the reality does not always mirror the theology.
And unfortunately focusing on this one, simplistic truth can tempt us to ignore some other major problems too. Derek Tidball highlighted one of these when he wrote “Realism compels one to observe, however, that there is a distinction to be made between the work of evangelical scholars and leaders and the use of the Bible at a more popular level. There, pre-enlightenment attitudes and pious illumination (by which one’s predetermined inner convictions are read into Scripture rather than Scripture being wisely interpreted and its meaning being read out of the text) often reigns” ("The Bible in Pastoral Practice”, Darton Longman and Todd edited by Paul Ballard and Stephen R Homes).
Personal Bible study can also become little more than a “lucky-dip, pick and mix exercise” tempting us to opt for passages that comfort us rather than challenge. Just as sadly, much of our time can be spent thinking about someone else’s commentary (or nice story) rather than meditating on the Biblical text itself. And when this happens we run the danger of absorbing human insights rather than enjoying an encounter with the divine. Read more
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