Friday, 30 June 2017
Love others
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The God Who Loves Sinners
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
John 3:14–17
Dr. H. A. Ironside told of a missionary who visited the church he attended when he was a little boy. After he showed them artifacts that he brought back from Africa the missionary asked, “How many good boys have we here?” Ironside said, “A lot of us thought we were good, but our mothers were there, and so not one of us dared hold up his hand.” The missionary said, “I have the same message for you that we have for the heathen in Africa; God loves naughty boys.” Ironside said he thought, “He is all mixed up. If you are good God will love you. That is what I had heard, but that is not true. God is not waiting for you to be good so He can love you; God loves sinners.”
Whether we have been saved for a few days, a few years, or for decades, we must never lose sight of the fact that God reached out in His boundless love and compassion and offered us salvation. This offer was not made because we deserved it, but because we needed it so desperately. So many religions are based on what people do or do not do. Christianity—true Christianity based on what the Bible teaches—is different. Instead of our efforts, salvation is all about what God’s love has provided to us, despite our sinful enmity against Him. What amazing love!
John 3:14–17
Dr. H. A. Ironside told of a missionary who visited the church he attended when he was a little boy. After he showed them artifacts that he brought back from Africa the missionary asked, “How many good boys have we here?” Ironside said, “A lot of us thought we were good, but our mothers were there, and so not one of us dared hold up his hand.” The missionary said, “I have the same message for you that we have for the heathen in Africa; God loves naughty boys.” Ironside said he thought, “He is all mixed up. If you are good God will love you. That is what I had heard, but that is not true. God is not waiting for you to be good so He can love you; God loves sinners.”
Whether we have been saved for a few days, a few years, or for decades, we must never lose sight of the fact that God reached out in His boundless love and compassion and offered us salvation. This offer was not made because we deserved it, but because we needed it so desperately. So many religions are based on what people do or do not do. Christianity—true Christianity based on what the Bible teaches—is different. Instead of our efforts, salvation is all about what God’s love has provided to us, despite our sinful enmity against Him. What amazing love!
Today’s Growth Principle:
There is no place for pride in the hearts of those who remember that God’s love was freely given.
Thursday, 29 June 2017
True joy
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Faithful in Life and Death
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
2 Timothy 2:6–8
One of the first leaders of the Reformation in Scotland, George Wishart, was known for his powerful preaching and reliance on the Word of God rather than the tradition of the established church. Once, a member of the congregation where he was preaching stood up and demanded that Wishart stop troubling the town. Wishart responded, “God is my witness, that I never minded your trouble but your comfort; yea, your trouble is more grievous to me than it is to yourselves. I have offered you the Word of salvation. With the hazard of my life I have remained among you; now you yourselves refuse me; and I must leave my innocence to be declared by my God.” Wishart was executed as a heretic, but the truth for which he gave his life could not be silenced by his murder.
The tests of faith that most of us have experienced have not been so severe as to threaten us with death for our beliefs. But whether they are large or small, the tests can only be passed by those who love God above all else. When we view Him rightly as worthy of any sacrifice and the owner of all we have and our very lives, we will not shrink from obeying Him regardless of the cost. The measure of our love for God is clearly seen in the measure of the faith we exercise during the difficult times of life.
2 Timothy 2:6–8
One of the first leaders of the Reformation in Scotland, George Wishart, was known for his powerful preaching and reliance on the Word of God rather than the tradition of the established church. Once, a member of the congregation where he was preaching stood up and demanded that Wishart stop troubling the town. Wishart responded, “God is my witness, that I never minded your trouble but your comfort; yea, your trouble is more grievous to me than it is to yourselves. I have offered you the Word of salvation. With the hazard of my life I have remained among you; now you yourselves refuse me; and I must leave my innocence to be declared by my God.” Wishart was executed as a heretic, but the truth for which he gave his life could not be silenced by his murder.
The tests of faith that most of us have experienced have not been so severe as to threaten us with death for our beliefs. But whether they are large or small, the tests can only be passed by those who love God above all else. When we view Him rightly as worthy of any sacrifice and the owner of all we have and our very lives, we will not shrink from obeying Him regardless of the cost. The measure of our love for God is clearly seen in the measure of the faith we exercise during the difficult times of life.
Today’s Growth Principle:
When we love God and desire to obey Him more than we desire ease and comfort, we will make a difference for Him.
Wednesday, 28 June 2017
Knowledge Is Not Enough
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Knowledge Is Not Enough
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:22–25
According to one study I saw, in 2015 Americans spent around $90 billion on gym memberships and exercise equipment. That staggering amount of money is roughly equal to the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the entire country of Panama! Yet it doesn’t take a whole lot of looking around to realize that all that money being spent has not produced a nation filled with thin people. Likewise, the annual best seller lists always include plenty of diet books, but that has not produced a noticeable difference in the average weight of Americans. This is because knowing that there is a problem and reading about solutions does not produce a cure. The only thing that changes the result is a change in our behavior.
The same is true in our spiritual walk. Knowing more about what is in the Bible is a good thing. We should read and study and learn as much as we can about the precious book God has given to us. But knowing the Bible will not change us for the better. Information in the head does not produce a change in behavior. It is only when we begin to do something with the information that we have gained from the Scriptures that we begin to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9).
James 1:22–25
According to one study I saw, in 2015 Americans spent around $90 billion on gym memberships and exercise equipment. That staggering amount of money is roughly equal to the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the entire country of Panama! Yet it doesn’t take a whole lot of looking around to realize that all that money being spent has not produced a nation filled with thin people. Likewise, the annual best seller lists always include plenty of diet books, but that has not produced a noticeable difference in the average weight of Americans. This is because knowing that there is a problem and reading about solutions does not produce a cure. The only thing that changes the result is a change in our behavior.
The same is true in our spiritual walk. Knowing more about what is in the Bible is a good thing. We should read and study and learn as much as we can about the precious book God has given to us. But knowing the Bible will not change us for the better. Information in the head does not produce a change in behavior. It is only when we begin to do something with the information that we have gained from the Scriptures that we begin to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9).
Today’s Growth Principle:
Until we put into practice the truths that we know, we will never become more like Jesus.
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
A Pattern of Prayer
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A Pattern of Prayer
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”
Daniel 6:8–10
One of the besetting sins of the modern church is a lack of prayer. We may read of great prayer warriors of the past—David Brainerd melting the snow around him with the length of time he spent in prayer or James the half brother of Jesus who was known in the early church as “Camel Knees” because his constant praying had left calluses on his legs. But we seldom copy their intensity and devotion to prayer. This is true despite the fact that prayer is the essential means God has ordained to meet our needs.
D. L. Moody said, “All through the Scriptures you will find that when believing prayer went up to God, the answer came down. I think it would be a very interesting study to go right through the Bible and see what has happened while God’s people have been on their knees calling upon him. Certainly the study would greatly strengthen our faith—showing, as it would, how wonderfully God has heard and delivered, when the cry has gone up to Him for help.”
The enemies of Daniel could not find anything to use in their attacks against him but his devotion to God. They knew that he prayed on a regular basis, so by passing a law outlawing prayer, they thought they had come up with a foolproof way to trap him. The day of crisis is not the time to begin praying. We need the habit before trouble comes.
Daniel 6:8–10
One of the besetting sins of the modern church is a lack of prayer. We may read of great prayer warriors of the past—David Brainerd melting the snow around him with the length of time he spent in prayer or James the half brother of Jesus who was known in the early church as “Camel Knees” because his constant praying had left calluses on his legs. But we seldom copy their intensity and devotion to prayer. This is true despite the fact that prayer is the essential means God has ordained to meet our needs.
D. L. Moody said, “All through the Scriptures you will find that when believing prayer went up to God, the answer came down. I think it would be a very interesting study to go right through the Bible and see what has happened while God’s people have been on their knees calling upon him. Certainly the study would greatly strengthen our faith—showing, as it would, how wonderfully God has heard and delivered, when the cry has gone up to Him for help.”
The enemies of Daniel could not find anything to use in their attacks against him but his devotion to God. They knew that he prayed on a regular basis, so by passing a law outlawing prayer, they thought they had come up with a foolproof way to trap him. The day of crisis is not the time to begin praying. We need the habit before trouble comes.
Today’s Growth Principle:
The great need of our day is more Christians who pray consistently, habitually, and fervently.
Monday, 26 June 2017
Willing to Pay the Price
Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
—Proverbs 16:3
Trying to figure everything out before you obey God will steal your joy. God doesn’t have to answer you when you ask, “Why God, why?” Trust means that you won’t always have 11 answers when you want them. Sometimes you just have to get to the other side of a situation to see the whole picture of what God is doing in your life.
God may be trying to separate you from some influence in your life that is keeping you from receiving the better plan He has for you. He may be “pruning” you to encourage new, healthier growth (See John 15:1-8). Use uncertain times to demonstrate your faith by trusting Him.
Willing to Pay the Price
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”
Mark 1:32–35
One of the breakout stars of the Rio Olympics in 2016 was a gymnast named Simone Biles. She won five medals, four of them gold. Her routines were much more difficult than those of her competitors and her scores reflected the technical excellence of her performance. A few years before, Biles was virtually unknown, but she wanted to rise to the top. So four years before the Olympics she decided that the twenty hours per week she was spending in the gym was not enough. She added twelve hours more each week to her training schedule. The sacrifice of time and effort Biles invested was on full display on the medal stand.
There is no substitute for labor and effort in the Christian life. After Jesus had preached and taught all day, and then healed the sick well into the night, He was exhausted. Though He was fully God, He was also fully human, and He got tired. Yet very early the next morning, He went out alone to pray. Jesus knew that He needed that time in communion with His Father to prepare for the challenges of the coming day. One preacher remarked that too many Christians have traded “Sweet Hour of Prayer” for “Just a Little Talk with Jesus.” We cannot casually follow Jesus. We must instead be willing to pay the price and put forth the effort if we are to be like Him.
Mark 1:32–35
One of the breakout stars of the Rio Olympics in 2016 was a gymnast named Simone Biles. She won five medals, four of them gold. Her routines were much more difficult than those of her competitors and her scores reflected the technical excellence of her performance. A few years before, Biles was virtually unknown, but she wanted to rise to the top. So four years before the Olympics she decided that the twenty hours per week she was spending in the gym was not enough. She added twelve hours more each week to her training schedule. The sacrifice of time and effort Biles invested was on full display on the medal stand.
There is no substitute for labor and effort in the Christian life. After Jesus had preached and taught all day, and then healed the sick well into the night, He was exhausted. Though He was fully God, He was also fully human, and He got tired. Yet very early the next morning, He went out alone to pray. Jesus knew that He needed that time in communion with His Father to prepare for the challenges of the coming day. One preacher remarked that too many Christians have traded “Sweet Hour of Prayer” for “Just a Little Talk with Jesus.” We cannot casually follow Jesus. We must instead be willing to pay the price and put forth the effort if we are to be like Him.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Unless we are willing to devote the time and effort necessary, we will never see God’s power in our lives.
Follow God’s Leading
by Joyce Meyer - posted June 25, 2017Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.
—Proverbs 16:3
Trying to figure everything out before you obey God will steal your joy. God doesn’t have to answer you when you ask, “Why God, why?” Trust means that you won’t always have 11 answers when you want them. Sometimes you just have to get to the other side of a situation to see the whole picture of what God is doing in your life.
God may be trying to separate you from some influence in your life that is keeping you from receiving the better plan He has for you. He may be “pruning” you to encourage new, healthier growth (See John 15:1-8). Use uncertain times to demonstrate your faith by trusting Him.
Sunday, 25 June 2017
Doctrine and Practice
Doctrine and Practice
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”
1 Timothy 6:3–5
The expression GIGO—garbage in, garbage out—appears to have been used in print for the first time back in 1957 in an article about Army engineers and mathematicians working with early computers. A specialist named William Mellin explained that if the inputs are not programmed correctly, the result will inevitably be incorrect. Any decisions that are made on the basis of such faulty information may be made with confidence, but they will not be correct.
One of the most important truths of life is that what we believe and teach determines how we behave. Doctrine always impacts conduct, either for good or ill. There is no such thing as belief that does not produce results in our lives. The idea that we can somehow continually feed our minds a diet of false teaching and values but not have our lives impacted is folly. Just as what we eat affects our health, what we think affects our actions.
Every Christian needs a constant, steady diet of truth in order to stay on the right path. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). We are constantly under assault from the world, the flesh, and the devil as they seek to pull us away from following God. We need to read the Word of God for ourselves and hear it faithfully preached and taught to counter the stream of lies pervading the culture and keep us on the right path.
1 Timothy 6:3–5
The expression GIGO—garbage in, garbage out—appears to have been used in print for the first time back in 1957 in an article about Army engineers and mathematicians working with early computers. A specialist named William Mellin explained that if the inputs are not programmed correctly, the result will inevitably be incorrect. Any decisions that are made on the basis of such faulty information may be made with confidence, but they will not be correct.
One of the most important truths of life is that what we believe and teach determines how we behave. Doctrine always impacts conduct, either for good or ill. There is no such thing as belief that does not produce results in our lives. The idea that we can somehow continually feed our minds a diet of false teaching and values but not have our lives impacted is folly. Just as what we eat affects our health, what we think affects our actions.
Every Christian needs a constant, steady diet of truth in order to stay on the right path. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). We are constantly under assault from the world, the flesh, and the devil as they seek to pull us away from following God. We need to read the Word of God for ourselves and hear it faithfully preached and taught to counter the stream of lies pervading the culture and keep us on the right path.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Knowing the impact doctrine has on our lives, we must closely guard what we read and hear.
Saturday, 24 June 2017
It “is just for a moment.”
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Friday, 23 June 2017
Faith in a Time of Falling Away
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Faith in a Time of Falling Away
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
2 Thessalonians 2:2–4
One of the topics of greatest interest to many Christians is prophecy and end time events. They want to know what to expect in the days ahead. Of course this interest is not new. The last question the disciples asked Jesus before He returned to Heaven was about His plan for the future: “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
The Bible makes it clear that God does not intend for us to know the exact timing of future events, but instead be ready for the return of the Lord at any moment. It also tells us a great deal about what to expect as we wait for that day. Scripture says that the last days will see an increase in sinful activity, and there will be a decrease in genuine faith. Many who once professed to believe will fall away, while others redefine faith so that it no longer holds any real meaning.
Our task is to be faithful. That is true no matter who around us may stop following God. As long as our eyes are on Jesus and our confidence in the Word of God is strong, we will not be numbered among those who fall away.
2 Thessalonians 2:2–4
One of the topics of greatest interest to many Christians is prophecy and end time events. They want to know what to expect in the days ahead. Of course this interest is not new. The last question the disciples asked Jesus before He returned to Heaven was about His plan for the future: “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
The Bible makes it clear that God does not intend for us to know the exact timing of future events, but instead be ready for the return of the Lord at any moment. It also tells us a great deal about what to expect as we wait for that day. Scripture says that the last days will see an increase in sinful activity, and there will be a decrease in genuine faith. Many who once professed to believe will fall away, while others redefine faith so that it no longer holds any real meaning.
Our task is to be faithful. That is true no matter who around us may stop following God. As long as our eyes are on Jesus and our confidence in the Word of God is strong, we will not be numbered among those who fall away.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Our faith depends on God alone, and we should not allow the apostasy of others to weaken it.
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Never Read the Bible Simply to Know
Never Read the Bible Simply to Know
I have spent virtually all of my adult life encouraging people to pursue their supreme satisfaction in God. I have argued that saving faith in Jesus Christ does not just bear the fruit of joy, but in fact, even more profoundly, is itself a species of joy. Saving faith at its root means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.
I have celebrated the way George Müller — that great prayer warrior and lover of orphans — approached the Bible, when he said, “I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord” (Autobiography).
Though he was a thoroughly doctrinal man, with a strong commitment to Reformed theology, he was never content to find doctrine in the Bible. Unless some unusual obstacle hindered him, he would not rise from his knees until sight had become savoring.
True Illumination Before Proper Affections
To be sure, Müller agreed with his contemporary and friend Charles Spurgeon that seeing precedes savoring. And we must read the Bible with a diligent pursuit of right understanding before there are to be right emotions.
Certainly, the benefit of reading must come to the soul by the way of the understanding. . . . The mind must have illumination before the affections can properly rise towards their divine object. . . . There must be knowledge of God before there can be love to God: there must be a knowledge of divine things, as they are revealed, before there can be an enjoyment of them. (Sermons)
Yes. Illumination precedes and warrants and shapes the affections. But Müller agreed just as much with John Owen that the “ravishing joys and exultations of spirit that multitudes of faithful martyrs of old” have tasted came “by a view of the glory of Christ” (Works). Therefore, neither Owen, nor Spurgeon, nor Müller were satisfied with “mere notions” about the glory of Christ. They read their Bibles not only to see but to savor. Owen put it like this:
If we satisfy ourselves in mere notions and speculations about the glory of Christ as doctrinally revealed unto us, we shall find no transforming power or efficacy communicated unto us thereby. . . . Where light leaves the affections behind, it ends in formality or atheism; and where affections outrun light, they sink in the bog of superstition, doting on images and pictures, or the like. (Works)
Two Great Dangers
These men understood — and we should understand — the double dangers of intellectualism and emotionalism. Intellectualism stresses the use of the intellect and its discoveries without the corresponding awakening of all the emotions that those discoveries are meant to kindle. Emotionalism stresses the energetic stirring of the emotions that are untethered to truth as their warrant and guide. Owen gives sound counsel about how the emotions of the heart should be rooted in and shaped by the truth that the mind sees in Scripture.
When the heart is cast indeed into the mold of the doctrine that the mind embraceth, — when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us, — when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides in our hearts, — when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for, — then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men. (Works)
I love this vision of how we seek and contend for truth. Is it not a beautiful prospect to “have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for”? How different our Bible reading and our Bible discussions would be if we refused to speak of our insights until they were sweetened by the real communion of our souls with God in them.
Quest to Savor
In all our effort to see more and more of the glory of God, we are aiming, by that seeing, to savor the God we see. That is, we are always aiming to experience spiritual affections in our heart wakened by the spiritual sight of truth in our minds. We are taking upon ourselves the same goal for our Bible reading that Jonathan Edwards had for his preaching when he said,
I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with. (The Works of Jonathan Edwards)
We read our Bibles to “raise the affections.” Yes. But we aim to be affected by truth. And we aim that our affections accord with the nature of the truth we see.
We should aim in all our seeing to savor his excellence above all things. Seeing the glory of God as we read the Bible should never be an end in itself. We read in order to see in order to savor. We seek insight in order to enjoy. We seek knowledge in order to love. We seek doctrine for the sake of delight. The eyes of the heart serve the affections of the heart.
Savor Bitter, Savor Sweet
One corrective is needed immediately to clarify the meaning of savor. I have treated savoring as though it were all positive — enjoying and loving and delighting. The reason is that this is how the peculiar glory of God does its deepest transforming work. We see it. Then we are profoundly satisfied by it. And then, by this satisfaction, we are changed at the root of our being.
But it is also clear from Scripture that God uses not only pleasant emotions in response to seeing his glory, but also painful emotions. These too come from seeing the glory of God in Scripture. And these too are meant to be transforming, in their own way. They are meant to bring about change in a more indirect way, driving us away from destructive sins, in the hope that we will be drawn positively by the superior satisfaction of God’s holiness.
God does not cease to be glorious when he disciplines his children. Yet this glory leads us first to sorrow. And then, through sorrow and repentance, to joy.
“The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” . . . For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:6, 11).
God aims at “peaceful fruit,” not pain. But he may cause pain for the sake of the pleasant experience of peace.
Peculiar Glory of God’s Word
God does not cease to be glorious when he says to those who are entangled in sin, “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:9–10). His aim is that we enjoy the experience of “he will exalt you.” But on the way there, God’s strategy may be rebuke. It is fitting.
Together with all God’s ways and purposes, it too is part of his peculiar glory. It may stretch the ordinary meaning of language, but this too we should “savor.” “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3). There are foods that blend the sour and the sweet in such a way as to make the sweet all the richer.
What this means for our reading the Scriptures is that seeing the glory of God may not always awaken, first, the sweetness of his worth and beauty. It may awaken the sorrows of remembered sin and remaining corruption in our hearts. “Savoring” this painful truth would mean welcoming it rather than denying it or twisting it. It would mean being thankful and letting the rebuke and the correction have its full effect in contrition and humility. And it would mean letting it lead us to the mercies of God and the sweet relief that comes from his saving grace in Christ.
Read in Pursuit of Passion
So, we never read the Bible merely to seethe glory of God. Never merely to learnor merely to know or merely to amass doctrinal truth. We always see and learn and know in the pursuit of affections, and feelings, and emotions, and passions that are suitable to the truth we have seen.
The range of emotions in response to reading the Bible is as broad as the kinds of truth revealed. The truth may be horrible, like the infants being slaughtered in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16), and our emotions should include revulsion and anger and grief. The truth may be precious beyond words, like the words to a lifelong thief who hears, just before he dies, “Today you will be with me in paradise!” (Luke 23:43). So, our emotions should include wonder and thankfulness and hope.
The divine fingers of Scripture are meant to pluck every string in the harp of your soul. We never read just to know.
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