On August 22, 2018 By Uri Brito In Worship 1

13 Thoughts on Reading the Bible

We need to see our entrance into the Bible’s words as something of a heavenly excursion. The Bible is a window into the New Jerusalem; the place where faith turns into sight. Indeed it’s the wardrobe into a new world.
Coming to the Bible is formational. We are being formed into something, or better yet, into Someone. Entering into the Scriptural drama implies that we vow to dwell in that story together with God’s people. It is not a mechanical experience, but an experience of togetherness.
The Bible is to be experienced like excellent wine. It has to be savored, explored, cherished slowly. The Spirit of God does not waste his breath, so every text is a revelation of that divine truth.
Reading the Bible cannot be an exercise in proof-texting. Prooftexting atomizes the Bible and fails to see the redemptive flow of Scripture.
God’s love is manifested in His sharing revelation with humanity. The Bible is the “perfect” which has come (I Cor. 13:10). Thus engaging the Scriptures is entering into a community of love.
We often treat God’s Word as an encyclopedia. We seek data to fill up our tank of knowledge, but knowledge is an (ad)venture, the pursuit of self-giving love. As Dr. Esther Meek observes, “Knowledge is not information, but transformation.”
Devotional pietists fail to see the necessity of singing the Bible. When we sing the Bible, it is treasured and memorized. It is the grammar stage of biblical literacy.
We wish to saturate ourselves in the biblical story through various means available, and singing is an indispensable part of this process. To know the Bible is to sing the Bible.
I have always been fascinated with the practice of corporate reading of the Scriptures. We should probably have people over our homes merely to read the Bible out loud. Our children and our families need to hear the Bible.
It is always pitiful to visit evangelical churches where the Scriptures are only read–partially–during the sermon, while mainline churches continue the liturgical pattern of three readings per service, evangelicals who cherish sola scriptura shy away from it.
The prophets were clear about this. Where there is no prophetic revelation the people perish, which is to say where the revelation is not treasured the people find alternative revelations to satisfy their desires for ultimacy.
Reading, engaging, speaking the Bible is a way we express our union with Jesus since Jesus is communicated most clearly and objectively in God’s holy writ.
Scriptural language is the language of faith, hope, and love. In the Scriptures we are renewed in our faith, we find hope in the work of Messiah, and we are engaged in the language of love with the great lover of our souls.

About the Author / Uri Brito

Uri Brito is the Senior Pastor of Providence Church in Pensacola, Fl. He is married to Melinda and is the father of five children. He is the co-author of a new commentary on Ruth for the "Through New Eyes" series, the editor of The Church-Friendly Family, author of The Trinitarian Father, and co-author of the e-booklet Christian Pipe-Smoking. He is the founder and contributor to Kuyperian Commentary, and guest contributor at The Christian Post. He is a board member of the Theopolis Institute. Rev. Brito received his M.Div and D.Min. from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fl.