Suggestions to make your Bible study enjoyable
ENJOY YOUR BIBLE
by Richard Woike
o you enjoy your Bible? Or do you read it dutifully be cause a Christian ought to? Perhaps you read it mostly in preparing a lesson for your Sun day school class, or to give a talk before a CBMC meeting. Let’s face i t : most people don’t know what it means to really en joy the Bible. “ Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16). Across the centuries, Jeremiah shares the secret which he dis covered of real en joym ent of God’s Word, and if you will take it to heart, you, a twentieth cen tury businessman, can experience the same joy. Let’s look at Jeremiah’s formu la. First, he says that he found God’s words. Where did he find them? In the Bible. He had only the books of Moses, and perhaps some of the books which Ezra the scribe had co llated , plus the Psalms, and Solomon’s writings. These books were not very ac cessible, and he really had to work at the job of finding the portions he needed at any particular time, for he had no personal copy. The scrolls were large and cumber some, and he had no concordance to help him. I’m quite sure he did what the Orthodox Jews do to this day: he read the Scriptures daily, and he read them consecu
tively. Thus, he had the pleasure of finding, time after time, words which became more and more precious to him as they became more and more familiar to him. Here is the problem of the mod ern man: he has surrendered the right to discover God’s words for himself. The Bible is so readily available that he misses the thrill of recognizing how valuable this manuscript is. Remember when the original of the Mona Lisa was sent to this country a few years ago? People traveled for miles to see her for themselves, even though millions o f cheap copies had been avail able everywhere. Like many other men, I discov ered, some years ago, that the only way to find God’s words was to search the Scriptures daily for myself. Thus, I joined the Chris tian nobility described in the Book of Acts: “ These [the Christians of Be rea] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they re ceived the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scrip tures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). Notice that these unlikely be lievers received the Gospel and enjoyed checking the New Testa ment facts (for they had no New Testament) with the Old Testa ment writings. Notice, too, that they used their minds. I know a
lot of intelligent, well-educated men who refuse to use their minds when it comes to examin ing the Bible. They believe what their church tells them they should believe, or else they buy books about the Bible by learned theologians, on the theory that this second-hand thinking is easier to understand • “ Seek and ye shall find," said Jesus, and you will be surprised how many wonderful things you will find in the Bible if you start seeking. That brings us to the second part of Jeremiah’s formula. He describes his app rop ria tion of God’s Word as eating. Quite an interesting concept, isn’t it? When I eat, I like to do it myself. I don’t like somebody else to chew my food for me. I don’t mind comparing notes with somebody who is eating the same kind of food, and saying to him, “ This is a new flavor to me. What does it taste like to you?” Eating is necessary. If I stop eating, I get weak and sick, and eventually I die. Jeremiah said that he ate God’s words because he wanted to stay young spirit ually. You and I are no different than Jeremiah. But eating, while it is personal and necessary, is also enjoyable. You look forward to a good meal, you relish it while eating, and you look back with pleasure to the
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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