The Way Forward: Desire Makes us Move.

Challenges to Living by God's Word (4/4)

This week, we’re ending a mini-series on challenges to living by God’s Word. I’m reading through a work of Pastoral Theology by Albert N. Martin and have been encouraged by voices from the past that he has brought to bear, which have worked their way into this month of newsletters. Parts are geared toward vocational ministers and pastors; if that’s not you, hang in. There is plenty of meat on the bone and questions to consider. Thanks for reading!

MK

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Photo by Tamas Tuzes-Katai on Unsplash

The Way Forward

In the last few weeks, we’ve covered three challenges to living by God’s Word:

• The Privilege and the Danger

• Tending the Vineyard of Others While Neglecting Your Own

• Posture Problem: Sharing at the Expense of Learning

Three challenges, and this week: a way forward. I recognize that for many Christians in vocational ministry, the way forward is challenging because we can deceive ourselves into thinking that our service to God can suffice for our communion with Him.

You and I need lifelong devotional assimilation of God’s Word. It’s the way forward and the constant invitation: Live by God’s Word.

I’ve talked with lots of Christians who feel like they should know more of the Bible than they do, and those who feel shame when their lack of Biblical literacy shows itself. One theologian notes, “No one wants to get God wrong, because getting God wrong means getting living in the world wrong.”

When it comes to an awareness of our lack, of the failed reading plan, the missed days (weeks), and the seeming distance in our prayers, it can create a weird hesitancy to begin again, we resist the simple step of drawing near to God. But the awareness is invitation: begin now, begin again.

Albert Martin has some helpful categories for thinking through what a lifelong devotional assimilation of God’s Word looks like:

Structured and Consistent: How you will ingest God’s Word and when

Systematic and Comprehensive: I say often that discipleship to Jesus is All of life for All of life. In the same vein, we need All the Bible for All of our lives. Others say we need the complete bible to make us complete men and women.

If Christian discipleship is the continual surrender of all of life to God’s good design - how do you know what his design is if you don’t know His wisdom? If you haven’t read his book? We need to let our minds be so inundated by the text that it becomes that background soundtrack to our thoughts.

Prayerful and Meditative - There are all kinds of ways we approach the text. You can play roulette with it, or you can learn the questions it is asking and think about the answers it gives. I’d encourage you to think about your posture with God’s living and active Word and make a choice to be dependent and receptive to being taught by the Spirit. This is a surrender to receive from God.

Structured and Consistent, Systematic and Comprehensive, Prayerful and Meditative.

Martin’s Pastoral Theology volumes have been introducing me to so many rich voices from the past. Here’s Thomas Murphy speaking to our need to daily depend upon God’s Word:

This is a very important duty for every Christian. The word is the great instrument by which the Spirit increases holiness in the hearts of believers. It is by faith in that word that men are ordained to be sanctified. Christ teaches the necessity of the truth when, in his great intercessory prayer, he made sure of its efficacy by the petition, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy Word is truth." The Spirit will honor his own truth, and will make it effectual. It is by Christ, the Bread of life, that the soul is to be nourished; and Christ is to be found chiefly in the Scriptures. From the Scriptures come light, and heat, and strength, and impulse, all of which are important elements of true godliness in the soul. 

Then the growth in piety which is produced in this way is not ephemeral or spurious in any sense; it is healthy, and will be permanent in its results. All the books on personal piety that were ever written are not to be compared in wisdom, in authority, or in efficacy with the Bible.

Adopt some rule of systematic devotional reading, and let it not be intermitted for any trivial consideration. Let your study of the word be profound, so as to get down to its very marrow and sweetness. Let your meditations be constant, so that all day long you may have some Scripture before the mind. Let it be with you as his biographer says of McCheyne, that "he fed on the word, not in order to prepare himself for his people, but for personal edification. To do so was a fundamental rule with him." And let all this devotional study of the word be mingled with prayer, that the same Spirit who inspired it would give it life and power in the effects upon your own soul. 

  Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology (Audubon NI: Old Paths Publications, 1996), 76-78

I love this line:
All the books on personal piety that were ever written are not to be compared in wisdom, in authority, or in efficacy with the Bible.

Most days I am up pretty early, and the last few months I’ve been listening to large chunks of Scripture 4-5 days a week on my Dwell audio bible (not a sponsored plug, just a paying customer who likes the product). Hearing the Word spoken, and changing up the translation has been a gift to my heart. I want the Word of God in my head and heart in any way possible - so why not use any of my senses that will work?
Where can you fill the in-between moments of your life with God’s Word? What does it look like to avoid empty time sinks, and offer that attention to God?

When you think about the way in which you approach God’s Word in your life:

• What is the meditation of your heart?

• Is God’s word treasure or medicine to you?

• Wherever you are right now, what is a step toward structured and consistent, 

  faithful and meditative?
  

Desire makes us move. My hope and prayer is that you would want to want the Scriptures, and that you would see God as more worthy of your attention as a result. Not out of dry duty but out of response to surrendering to Him as God and then continually surrendering all of life to His good design as you grow in understanding of it through His Word.


Take some time to interact with, pray through, and respond to these scriptures:

Psalm 119:9–16
[9] How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
[10] With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
[11] I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
[12] Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes!
[13] With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
[14] In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
[15] I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
[16] I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word. (ESV)

Psalm 119:18–20
[18] Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
[19] I am a sojourner on the earth;
hide not your commandments from me!
[20] My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times. (ESV)

Psalm 119:97–104
[97] Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
[98] Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
[99] I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
[100] I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
[101] I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
[102] I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
[103] How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
[104] Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way. (ESV)

Psalm 19:7–11
[7] The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
[8] the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
[9] the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
[10] More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
[11] Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. (ESV)

Jeremiah 15:16
[16] Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O LORD, God of hosts. (ESV)

Ephesians 1:16–22
[16] I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, [17] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, [18] having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, [19] and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might [20] that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, [21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, (ESV)

2 Timothy 3:16–17
[16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (ESV)

John 15:1–10
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. [2] Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. [3] Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. [4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. [5] I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [7] If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. [9] As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. [10] If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (ESV)