Finding Life in the Word Jason Finley, Discipleship Pastor, Crosspoint Church Ever feel your Bible reading

becomes drudgery, confusing or forgettable? Two possible problems: 1. You might not be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 2. If you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, your problem is not you, rather your method. Good news! God has given you all the tools you need to have a rich devotional life in the Word. Some things to understand prior to setting out to develop a life in the Word: 1. Spiritual growth is not automatic and is not easy. a. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7, 8 ESV) b. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14 ESV) 2. Disciplines are not the end, rather they are a means. a. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglected the others. (Luke 11:42 ESV) b. This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3 ESV) 3. Our goal is holiness: worshipful obedience to Jesus a. and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24 ESV) b. Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23 ESV) 4. Scripture intake is the single most important spiritual discipline a. His divine power has granted us to all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he as granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV)

b. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16,17 ESV) c. If Scripture is primary, it should be priority. Place Where will you go to read? Plan What are you going to read? Time When are you going to read? Planning references: - Readers Guide to the Bible Chronolical Reading Plan; - Book at a Time reading plan, reading plans commonly found in Bible appendix; - One to One Bible Reading by David Helm: excellent appendices applying the Context, Observation, Meaning, Application (COMA) method to various parts of Scripture. Two tools for intentional Bible reading Meditate on Scripture How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into a matter for meditation before God, leading prayer and praise to God. Packer, Knowing God; 23 The single greatest devotional need for most people is meditation. A brief illustration of the common problem we face: From Breaking Home Ties by Norman Rockwell, 1954. Holmes: You have frequently seen the steps that lead up from the hall to this room. Watson: Hundreds of times. Holmes: Then how many are there? Watson: How many? I dont know! Holmes: Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed. My problem with Scripture intake is that I dont remember anything I read! Meditation is the absorption of Scripture. A good test to see if you need to do this: ask yourself later in the day: can I remember what I read? This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8 ESV)

If God is commanding it of all people then it must be doable. Therefore, consider the following method: after your Bible reading, choose a verse or phrase for meditationjust one that stands out as importantand meditate on it: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Repeat the verse or phrase with emphasis on a different word each time. Rewrite the verse or phrase in your own words. Look for applications of this text: what should you do in response to it? Ask how the text points to an aspect of the law or the gospel. Ask how the text points to an aspect of the person or work of Jesus Christ. Formulate a principle from the text. Pray through the text. Ask the Philippians 4:8 questions: a. What is true? b. What is honorable? c. What is right? d. What is pure? e. What is lovely? f. What is admirable? g. What is excellent? h. What is praiseworthy? 9. Ask the Joseph Hall questions: a. What is it? b. What are its divisions or parts? c. What causes it? d. What does it cause? e. What is its place, location or use? f. What are its qualities and attachments? g. What is contrary, contradictory or different to it? h. What compares to it? i. What are its titles or names? j. What are the testimonies or examples of Scripture about it? 10. Discover a minimum number (set before reading) of insights into the text. 11. Find a link or common thread between all the chapters youve read. 12. Use meditation mapping: a. Put the verse(s), phrase, word or topic to be meditated upon in the middle of the page. b. Allow insights, ideas and thoughts to come quickly and freely. c. Use key words to represent ideas. d. Connect your key word ideas to the central focus with lines. e. Use as few words per line as possible. f. Consider using color for emphasis and to improve recall. g. Make frequent use of symbols and pictures in addition to words.

Praying Scripture And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. (Matthew 6:7 ESV) Why is it difficult to pray? - Our problem is not, however, that we pray about the same old things. - Our problem is that we pray the exact same way about the exact same things. A simple solution: pray through Scripture, especially the Psalms. - Jesus prayed the psalms o And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1 ESV) - The early church prayed the Psalms (Acts 4:23-26) A Method to Praying Psalms by Donald Whitney Let the words of Scripture become the words of your prayers. For example, if you pray through Psalm 23, read The Lord is my shepherd, and thank God for being your shepherd. Ask him to shepherd your family that day to guide, protect and provide for them. Pray that he will make your family members his sheep; that they will look to him as their shepherd. As him to shepherd you through the decision you must make about your future. Pray for him to bless the under-shepherd at your church, shepherding them as he shepherds the church, etc. When nothing else comes to mind, go to the next line, I shall not want, and continue to pray. Simply go through the passage, line-by-line, praying what you find in the text or what it brings to mind. If nothing comes to mind or if you dont understand the verse go to the next. You might to linger long on one verse. Conversely, there may be only a handful of matters that prompt prayer as you go through many verses. Nothing says you have to pray over every verse. Continue in this way until either you run out of time or you run out of Psalm. One approach to choosing a Psalm to pray through is the Psalms of the Day approach. This divides the 150 Psalms into five Psalms for each thirty days in a month. Take the day of the month as your first Psalm. Then keep adding thirty to that number until you get five Psalms. So on the fifteenth of the month your first Psalm is Psalm fifteen. To Psalm fifteen add thirty to get forty-five. These would be followed by Psalm seventy-five, 105 and 135. On the thirty-first use Psalm 119. Take thirty seconds to scan these five Psalms, then choose one to pray through. One advantage of this method is that it gives you direction when its time to pray and defeats aimlessness. The Psalms are the best place in Scripture from which to pray Scripture. This is because of the original purpose and usage of the Psalms. The Psalms were songs inspired by God for the purpose of being reflected in song back to God. Moreover, theres a Psalm for every sigh of the heart. The entire range of human emotion is recorded in the 150 Psalms. Pray when you feel like it, because itd be terrible to miss such an opportunity; but we also ought to pay when we dont feel like it, because itd be terrible to remain in that condition. Charles Spurgeon