In no way am I trying to create a movement, nor am I trying to glorify myself. I am not condemning people that do this, nor am I asking you to do what I am doing. Rather I had a thought that really made me think hard about Scripture. The Reformation declared "Scripture Alone" or Sola Scriptura, which affirms that ."..the Bible is the sole written authority for the faith and life of God's people. " It helps, guides and feeds our journey throughout this life. I love to read books, I may even have to buy another bookshelf for all the books I have, but I feel like sometimes we get alittle distracted. I had a seminary professor tell me once that so many people want to know what Piper thinks about a particular passage. Or John MacArthur says about this passage, or (insert name) says about a passage. He said what does Scripture say about that passage! SO many times we run to commentaries or books of authors to tell us what it says and yes that is useful but make sure you do an inductive study of the passage. Another thing that struck me was recently I saw Francis Chan speak about being fed ideas of Scripture. Using an encounter of two Jehovah's Witnesses and how they said Jesus was Michael the Arc Angel. He said that if you just read the Gospels, no commentaries, and had nothing else to feed you viewpoints, do you really see Jesus that way? Is that what Scripture indicates? More than likely no, but you were fed that.
So this led me to embark on simply reading Scripture. I will not read any external books (commentaries, supplemental) for the next month and focus on reading Scripture to gain a habit that should have been formed long ago. Any questions I may have I will write down and address later, or ask friends. I just want to absorb the Word, I want to soak in what God's word says and read it without being "fed" (presuppositions) or anything. God's word obviously can teach me all that I need: I can meditate on it (Josh. 1:8; Psalm 119:15) and learn from it. Not having commentaries or supplemental books didn't seem to stop the growth of the early church. (with this I understand that the NT wasn't whole until the 300's---though I would argue that since the Muratorian Canon of 125 had basically all the books contained in that Canon, there was a certain collection already being distributed--Plus see Colossians 4:16 for letters being read in other churches)
So far when looking at Scripture I know that God's Word is completely sufficient for my learning and growing in my faith:
We know that...
God's Word is eternal,
Mark 13:31
God's Word is Inspired by God
2 Timothy 4:16
2 Peter 1:19-21
God's word is living, active
Hebrews 4:12
We also know that if we remain in God's word that it will help us to avoid dishonoring God (Psalm 119:11)
I hope that this either convicts you in the sense that maybe your giving more time to other books than God's Word. I hope it encourages you to read more of God's Word, to thirst for it and seek passages that discuss God's Word (in its various forms). But most importantly I want you to see this as an entry of my need for growth, and my willingness to give something up so that I can grow in God's Word.
I also understand that since I am teaching various bible studies that involve supplemental books I will have to summerize them to keep my lessons clear and concise. Therefore I will exclude (work related) books that I will need to summerize for up-coming studies.
Also I will not be on a computer for the next week so my next entry will be on Monday!
Be Blessed
