December 2014 - Jump Into The Word

December 30, 2014
by Dr. Lawson Murray Leave a comment

Top 3 Picks For 2014

Here are the top 3 Bible Engagement Blog picks for 2014:

1. In Love With The Author

International Evangelist, Ken Terhoven, my late father-in-law, used to tell this story . . . Read more at: https://www.jumpintotheword.com/2014/08/19/in-love-with-the-author/

2. Inviting Non-Bible Readers To Read The Bible

How do we invite non-Bible readers to read the Bible? Here are six important things we need to think about and do . . . Read more at: https://www.jumpintotheword.com/2014/01/15/inviting-non-bible-readers-to-read-the-bible/

3. Bible Reading in Canada

According to the Canadian Bible Engagement Study (May 2014), 55% of Canadians never read the Bible, 28% seldom read the Bible, 7% read it a few times a year, and 11% read it once a week or more frequently. How do these statistics compare with Bible reading in the past? . . . Read more at: https://www.jumpintotheword.com/2014/05/14/bible-reading-in-canada/

December 17, 2014
by Dr. Lawson Murray Leave a comment

Receive the Word of God

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. James 1:19-21 .

The Word of God can’t work in our lives unless we take delivery of it in the right way. According to James 1:19-21 here’s how we should receive the Word:

Be swift to hear (v.19a)

God gave us two ears and one mouth – probably because He wants us to spend twice as much time listening over talking! Basic to receiving the Word is paying attention to what God says. “He who has ears, let him hear” Matthew 13:9. “Consider carefully how you listen” Luke 8:18. Listening is vital because “faith comes from hearing the message . . .” Romans 10:17.

Be slow to speak (v.19b)

We should know when it’s appropriate to speak or not to speak. “He who holds his tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19) and “a man of knowledge uses words with restraint” Proverbs 17:27. For the Word of God to work in our lives we must be careful to say only those things that both edify those who hear, and honours the Lord on whose behalf we speak.

Be slow to anger (v.19c-20)

Anger impedes the righteous life God wants us to pursue. “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly” Proverbs 14:29 . If we have a hostile outlook to the Word or resent it when it exposes an ungodly lifestyle, reveals sin, upsets comfort zones, or challenges opinions and false ideas, we will not be able to grow in spiritual maturity.

Be submissive in spirit (v.21)

A selfless, willing, humble and teachable disposition is the final requirement for receiving the Word as God intended. “We might wonder why the ever-practical James does not proceed to outline schemes of daily Bible reading or the like, for surely these are the ways in which we offer a willing ear to the voice of God. But he does not help us in this way. Rather, he goes deeper, for there is little point in schemes and times if we have not got an attentive spirit. It is possible to be unfailingly regular in Bible reading, but to achieve no more than to have moved the bookmark forward: this is reading unrelated to an attentive spirit. The word is read but not heard. On the other hand, if we can develop an attentive spirit, this will spur us to create those conditions – a proper method in Bible reading, a discipline of time, and so on – by which the spirit will find itself satisfied in hearing the Word of God” J. A. Motyer.

December 8, 2014
by Dr. Lawson Murray Leave a comment

4/14 Bible Engagement

“Connecting children with Jesus and His Story should be the priority of the church today!” This, according to the keynote message at the December 2014 Forum of Bible Agencies- North America meeting in Niagara Falls.

“God’s Word for a Young World”, the theme of the FOBA-NA meeting, centered attention on the importance of reaching children and youth. “A new focus is needed for a new era . . . what we’ve done in the past will not cut it in the future . . . each successive generation (in the Western world) has fewer Christians than the previous generation . . . we must do all we can to share the Scriptures with our children and grand-children while we still can!”

These impassioned comments were fuelled by the injunction in God’s Word to “Impress them (the Scriptures) on your children” Deuteronomy 6:7 (NIV). Or, as Eugene Peterson paraphrased this verse in The Message, the task is to first “Get them (the Scriptures) inside of you and then get them inside your children.”

The call to connect children and youth with the Bible is amplified by research. According to the Pew Research Centre, the religious unaffiliated in Canada has gone from 4% in 1970 to 24% in 2011 and in the USA from 5% in 1970 to 20% in 2011. Couple the rise of the “Nones” with the growth of other religions in North America and the need to impress the Scriptures on our children is more urgent than ever before.

So how do we do Bible engagement with a special concern for children? Forum members were encouraged to review, revise and restructure their operational budgets. Finances could then be used to envision and develop new resources. The work should not be done in isolation. Collaboration and working partnerships with children’s/youth agencies should be integral to the efforts as well as the creation of innovative marketing/promotions that invite and encourage children and youth to engage with the Bible.

But the challenge to connect children with the Bible involves much more than the creation of, distribution or marketing of resources. Stress was placed on the fact that “Belief matters! When people love Christ, they will love His Word.” A correlation of findings from Bible engagement studies revealed that most people who intentionally engage with the Bible are people who embrace Christ by faith. Bible engagement paradigms must therefore include evangelism, specifically child evangelism, as a core component of a 4/14 Bible engagement strategy.

With the above in mind, the concluding comment of the opening address was, “The decline in Bible engagement is primarily a relational problem – people aren’t getting connected to Jesus . . . we need more than a Bible reading revival – we need a Jesus revival!”