“Your Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you” ( Psalm 119:11)
1 SIMPLY READ THE BIBLE
The Bible was written primarily to be read… “Seek out the book of the Lord and read” Isaiah 34:16. “Give attention to the public reading of Scripture…” 1st Timothy 4:13. Simply reading the Bible gives you the big picture of God’s story from Genesis through to Revelation. It guards us from cherry picking our favorite doctrines and simply helping us see the overarching story arc as we read the history, poetry prophecy, gospels, letters, and apocalyptic literature from God’s perspective.
2 STUDY THE BIBLE
Learn to do exciting character studies, word studies, historical studies and try to study everything the Bible says about a given subject. **see 2 Timothy 2:15
3 MEDITATE ON SCRIPTURE
Meditation forces us to slow down, be still, (Ps.46:10), listen to his voice and “chew” on the Word with small select verses or even phrases in Scripture. The original Hebrew meaning of the word for meditate is “chew”. Some of our Catholic friends like Teresa of Avila, Thomas A’Kempis and Madame Guyon can help us in this area. **see Psalm 1:1-3, Josh. 1:9
4 MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE
I have found great delight and memorizing whole chapters or books of the Bible. Simply start with your favorite chapter and memorize it verse by verse. You can do this by basic association techniques, repetition, or just simply read the words over and over and they will create a groove in your mind through which Scripture can be stored. **see Ps. 119:11
5 LISTEN TO THE BIBLE
I have the whole Bible on both cassette tapes left over from the old days that I can still use in my 23-year-old van, as well as the whole Bible on CD. I have cassette players and CD players in every room of my house – including the bathroom and garage in which I can listen to the word of God being read by such notables as Shakespearean actor Alexander Scourby and Gregory Peck, an American actor. **see Rom. 10:17
6 PRACTICE GOD’S PRESENCE
This phrase and practice was made famous by Carmelite monk Brother Lawrence and popularized by folks like Frank Lauback, linguist and missionary to the Philippines . This is simply taking the time during your day – whether Brother Lawrence working in the kitchen of his monastery or Frank Lauback working on Bible translations. Taking the time to just reflect on the Omnipresence of God and of course our understanding of this comes directly from the Word.
7 PRACTICE BIBLICAL OBEDIENCE
With our obsession with justification by faith we have somehow lost our understanding of “the obedience of faith”. Fascinating and convicting is the Bible book First John where there are three “tests” of authentic Christianity:
- To believe that Jesus is the son of God,( 1 Jn. 3:23)
- To love one another( 1 Jn. 2:9-11)
- To obey his commandments( 1 Jn. 2:4).
Obedience to the Word helps not only get the Word into our hearts but to keep it there! **see Romans 1:5, 15:26
By Danny Lehmann, Youth With A Mission
Related link: University of the Nations website