A Warning to the Bible Scholar

It’s mid semester of my senior year as I Bible major and I don’t want to read my Bible…to be totally honest I want to run from it. I love God, a lot. But I’m weary of the Bible. I have filled my mind with head knowledge, but my heart is starving. They say the Bible is supposed to change a person’s life…so why in four weeks of intense study of the Bible have I come away with one soul filling lesson? Why only once did the vision of the gospel grasp hold?

                I am in Gospel Literature, but have learned nothing of Jesus.

                I am in the Psalms, but really could stand never to read one again.

There’s something wrong here.

Why is it that the philosophical ideas outside of the Bible are giving me more life than that ancient document written for all of God’s followers?

This is my warning: dear Bible scholars who bless us with your knowledge, don’t forget your soul.

Rationality matters. Understanding the text matters, but if you read the Bible when it’s not about the study or the concepts, but about how God works.

Are we asking the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts?

Are we REALLY letting Him guide us in understanding? In all 4 years of my college I haven’t heard reference to this once in class.

Don’t lose yourself in knowledge, because no matter how many historical arguments there are for Scripture’s validity, no matter if a psalm was written by David or not, no matter if the Christian existence in the world will begin to end with rapture or if there not even be a millennium,  God is looking for those who want HIM not knowledge OF Him.

And so Bible student, I urge you, remember to pray.  Remember that God is God and seek His face. Don’t let the Bible become your idol, and don’t let intensive study drive you from experiencing it. God’s story matters because by it we may more fully know God.

And God is worth knowing.

That’s why we read His Word…because He and His servants co-authored the Bible.  That’s why we study the historical context: so that we can understand how the human author and his audience thought and meant to write. That's why we pray, because His Spirit talks through His word. 

God, please, help us to understand, so that we might know you and love you more. We're hungry to hear you speak.