“ When we read big , we simply relax and absorb what the Bible has to say .”
day emails and choose our own “ life verses .” Because we have an easy reference system , we can isolate passages based on chapter and verse instead of engaging with the author ’ s entire argument or train of thought .
All of this results in a set of standard Bible practices that are built on the Bible ’ s bits and pieces . Philip Yancey once said , “ The modern church has created an entire culture around Bible McNuggets and assumed they were nutritious .”
This unconsciously puts us in the mindset of a gold miner , looking for the nuggets of inspiration among the vast swaths of Scripture that don ’ t seem immediately useful . We skim through Lamentations ( or skip over it entirely ) to get to the one positive bit : “ The faithful love of the LORD never ends ! / His mercies never cease . / Great is his faithfulness ; / his mercies begin afresh each morning .” But what about the other 99 % of Lamentations ?
“ When we read big , we simply relax and absorb what the Bible has to say .”
When we do this , we put our own agendas in front of the Bible ’ s . We come to the Bible expecting something to lift us up and speak to us , something that we can immediately apply . The problem is that huge parts of the Bible aren ’ t going to scratch those itches . Instead , we need to read big .
When we read big , we simply relax and absorb what the Bible has to say . We loosen our whiteknuckled grip on personal application and set aside our agendas . We read one of Paul ’ s letters in one sitting ( most can be read in under 20 minutes ) and see what unexpectedly jumps out at us .
Reading big puts the Bible ’ s agenda in front of our own and opens us up to everything it has to say . Rather than looking around for something to “ fill us ,” we can simply relax and trust that God will speak to us no matter where we ’ re reading .
3 . You ’ re Doing It Alone
Okay , this one might be a little bit your fault . But who can blame you — we have a Bible reading culture built on personal devotions and individual quiet time .
While reading devotionally and spending time alone with God is a good and important practice , we rarely stop to consider that most people didn ’ t even have their own Bible until a few hundred years ago . Prior to that , Scripture was always read , heard , and discussed in community . The Bible is first and foremost , as Scot McKnight says , a community-formation book .
So what might it look like to recover more community-oriented practices around Bible reading ? One approach is to mimic book clubs . Several years ago I helped create a program called Immerse , where groups of 8-10 people read large portions of Scripture ( roughly 50 pages ) during the week and then
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