Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth,
but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
according to all that is written in it”.
Kenneth Berding, professor of New
Testament at Biola’s Talbot School of Theology writes: “I've heard people call it a famine - a famine of knowing
the Bible. During a famine people waste away for lack of sustenance. Some
people die. Those who remain need nourishment; they need to be revived. And if
they have any hope of remaining alive over time, their life situation has to
change in conspicuous ways. Christians used to be known as “people of one
book.” Sure, they read, studied and shared other books. But the book they cared
about more than all others combined was the Bible. They memorized it, meditated
on it, talked about it and taught it to others. We don’t do that anymore, and
in a very real sense we’re starving ourselves to death. Does this sound overly
alarmist to you? People who have studied the trends don’t think so. Gallup polls have tracked
this descent to a current ‘record low.’” George Barna assesses that “the
Christian body in America
is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy.” These days many of us don’t
even know basic facts about the Bible. Examples: What are the first five books of the
Bible? What are five of the Ten Commandments? If you know, then you are in the minority today.
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who
walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor
sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on
his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of
water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all
that he does, he prospers.
Berding points out that in the book of Amos, people
experienced a “famine of hearing the words of the Lord”. In Amos they want it,
but are not permitted it. In our case, although we have unlimited access, (books,
CD’s, DVD’s, Flash-drives, radio, television, Internet, Smart-phones, pads and
tablets), we often don’t want it. Berding says: "Every time I teach a class called Biblical
Interpretation and Spiritual Formation, I ask my students why it is that so
few people in this generation are really zealous about the things of God. I
can’t remember a time when I've asked that question when someone hasn't
mentioned distractions." They are everywhere. When we walk from one meeting to
another, are our thoughts naturally moving to Scripture and prayer or thinking
on the things of God that we have learned from the Bible? Or do we immediately
check to see whether someone has messaged us?
In 1986, Neil Postman published an influential cultural
essay titled “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” He argued that personal freedoms
would disappear not when a totalitarian government imposed oppression from the
outside (like George Orwell pictured in his book 1984), but rather when people
came “to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their
capacities to think”. We shouldn't assume that these distractions have no
effect on our perceptions of God. Priorities are not as simple as “God first,
family second and church third.” What does that expression mean anyway?
Priorities aren't based upon a simple hierarchy; they require the proper
balance of activities in relationship to one another. “Meditating day and night” on God’s Word is
something that everyone must do. It is basic to the Christian life. It seems to
me, then, that in any weighting of priorities the following scenarios are out
of bounds: More time watching television, social networking, or playing games
than reading / studying / memorizing God’s Word. On this one point we really
shouldn't budge: Reading
and learning the Bible is such a fundamental priority for all who want to call
themselves “Christians”.
That raises a third issue
and a challenge, which relates to the job that Christian churches, Christian schools
and associated ministries are doing in Christian education. This is why our
church is tackling Bible Illiteracy with this “All Church Study”. Our aim is
not Bible Mastery, but neither is it Bible Basics. Our goal for each
participant is to reach Bible Fluency – a comfortable knowledge of what the
Bible is about, where it is headed, how to find what’s in the Bible for knowing
God and making Him known.
In Christ, Brian
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