January 2021 - Jump Into The Word

What do we mean by the term Bible engagement?

Bible engagement is the process that connects us with the Bible so that we have meaningful encounters with Jesus Christ in order for our lives to be progressively transformed in Him.

To elaborate: Bible engagement happens through the course of our lives as we find our part in God’s Story. For Bible engagement to happen we must first come together with and develop a vital relationship with Christ. The relationship begins and proceeds by grace and through faith as Christ saves us from sin and sanctifies us by the Spirit. Bible engagement is evidenced through ongoing obedience to God’s Word that’s seen in life-changes that take place individually and in community.

According to James 1:17-25, there are four actions involved in Bible engagement:

Receive God’s Word – “humbly accept” James 1:21.
Reflect on God’s Word – “looks intently” James 1:25.
Remember God’s Word – “not forgetting” James 1:25.
Respond to God’s Word – “doing it” James 1:22-23, 25.

To effectively receive, reflect, remember and respond to God’s Word there are several things we need to know:

Bible engagement flows out of an intimate reciprocating relationship with Jesus. The motivation for reading, reflecting, remembering and responding to the Word is only as strong as our love for Christ. The more we love Jesus, the greater our drive to engage with His Word will be.
Bible engagement is a process. There are no shortcuts. It involves what the scholar and author Eugene Peterson, calls “a long obedience in the same direction” – a course of action that’s repeated over and over again through the ups and downs of life.
Bible engagement involves desire. When our desire to receive, reflect, remember and respond to the Word is greater than staying where we are, we’ll be on the way toward regular and consistent engagement with the Word.
Bible engagement requires discipline. Daily choices about how we prioritize our time must be made in order to grow stronger in our engagement with God’s Word. Praying or hoping for a better connection with the Bible is futile if we spend our time glued to the TV or consumed by social media.
Bible engagement is fuelled by the Holy Spirit. “The same Holy Spirit who inspired Bible authors to write, inspires Bible readers to understand and accept it, as God’s Word,” says David Jackman, president of the Proclamation Trust. Self-efforts to improve our engagement with the Bible will end in failure. We’ll only mature in receiving, reflection, remembering and responding to the Word when we seek the daily filling of the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Real Bible engagement is initiated and enabled when we recognize our impotence – then invite the Holy Spirit to equip us as we listen, learn and live out God’s Word.
Bible engagement is a challenge. The enemy of God, Satan, does not want us to engage with the Bible. The spiritual forces of darkness work actively to distract, divert, daunt, deceive or defeat us when we seek to receive, reflect, remember and respond to God’s Word.
Bible engagement results in action. In the Parable of the Sower, the climax of the story comes when people “hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop” Mark 4:20. When hearing the Bible results in people becoming living epistles, i.e., being life words, then Bible engagement has occurred. Producing a crop is the ultimate goal. It’s not enough to hear the Word and accept it; the inward must become outward – the concealed must be revealed.

All told, Bible engagement is foundational and imperative for God’s people. So “get them (the Scriptures) inside of you and then get them inside your children” Deuteronomy 6:7 (MSG).

2 Corinthians 4:5

The more we read the Bible, the more it will read us. That’s one of the great reasons why Bible engagement should be a steady, ongoing, day-by-day concern; certainly never a hit or miss affair. Yet this isn’t always the case. Most of us don’t feed on the Word as consistently as we eat physical food. So how do we connect with the Word to be regular readers and doers of the Word? Here are three ways to strengthen Bible engagement:

Do what’s achievable. The best person to figure out the best way for you to connect with the Bible in the best way is you! If you’re big on reading, do whole book reading (also called the synthetic study of the Bible). If you’re not a big reader, read smaller bite-sized chunks. If you like reading, but need visuals, try something like the Kingstone Bible or the Word for Word Bible Comic. If you don’t like reading, then listen to the Bible. Google “Free Audio Bible” and you’ll find a range of audio options to choose from. And, if you’re not a good listener, then watch a visual production – one where the dialogue is word for word according to the written text, e.g. the Lumo Project or the Visual Bible.
Tap into technology. There are loads of Bible apps and plenty of online tools to help facilitate a range of Bible engagement practices. I use Bible Gateway all the time. My wife is plugged into YouVersion. Other popular apps include Bible.Is, ESV CrossWay, Glo Bible, NIV Bible by Tecarta, Blue Letter Bible, Daily Audio Bible, and the Olive Tree Bible Study App. Bible apps are especially helpful if you’re a visual or auditory preference learner, so find what works for you and implement.
Do it together. Two are better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Simply doing something with someone else is motivation in and of itself. When we journey through the Word with others, it makes it easier to engage with the Word. That’s because there’s something about helping each other stay accountable that serves to spur us on to read the Scriptures in the morning or listen to them while driving to work.