How to read the Bible...

If you find a book of books on your shelf that somewhere near the end says about Jesus "Lord of lords, and King of kings," this is called a bible. I recommend opening it once in a while. I'd say it would be you reading the text, but it is more, if you become truly open to what it's saying, like it starts to read you. It points out your motivations you're not proud of, or brings you comfort as you see others failing where you failed, but being restored, or you see others suffering as you're suffering and begin to know someone else knows about it too.

If you're serious about discovering God, revealed through Jesus, and seeking relationship with the creator, there is something incredibly precious about seeking deep Truths from the Bible. It is a collection of inspired writings that are united by the theme of Jesus, though more than half the authors don't know His name. As you get deep into a text you're allowed to ask it questions. It's not a straight forward manual of 'Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth'. It hardly has any basic instructions at all. The first five books get so complicated it's hard to wade through the complexities. Reading about Jesus is refreshing and then challenging, as He represents the God of the Jews, not really fitting into the mould that others have created for Him. I'm not talking about those He came into contact with Him, though they do play a part, but more the thousands of people who try to explain Him as a person, outside the writers of the New Testament. Those writers clear up a few issues, then bring fresh mystery to His character.

There are some simple practical guidelines to reading a text from the Bible, but most of them involve reading it. If you've been in church for a while preachers begin to become predictable in what they'll say about a text. They stop looking at the text, instead find a theme that is flagged by the text and spend more time on the theme than what was written. You end up with a church that finds a letter written 2000 years very confused what he actually wrote.

Imagine reading Paul's letter to the Philippians, and getting to the instruction "shine like stars" and your preacher thought the application was "share Jesus with more people." Stars don't try and get brighter. But I'm told I should. I don't know who to believe. The Apostle Paul who wrote a lot of fine stuff about Jesus, or my pastor who admits his lack of knowledge all the time. The answer comes by reading. Faith comes by hearing. The Bible fills itself with power, and as I read sections of the Scripture I find myself truly enlightened by what is going on. The World makes more sense, I gain perspective about myself.

Here's what to do: Pick up the Bible, put down any pens you might have to relieve yourself of a temptation to underline that which is particularly relevant to you at the moment, and search for Jesus. What was He about? Is that here in the text? (The answer is yes, you just need to find it.) And then allow that to take over what you think about everything. Everything.

P.S. I've started to write a book. Proof-readers are wanted!