What to Expect When You Read The Bible

Video Transcript

Welcome to Lectio4Life. I'm Michael Palandro, and in today's episode I want to talk about what we can or should expect from reading the Scripture. But before I get into that, I need to back up just a moment here to put this in a little bit of context.

There are two things that you need to understand. One is that you will notice that there's a lot in common with what I'm saying here and one of my earliest episodes where I talked about how lectio divina is able to connect the power of Scripture to our deepest desires in Christ.

But I have a little different twist on it for today. The second thing is, I believe that this session is an important context for the next episode I plan to produce where I want to talk about why it is important that we actually read the Scripture for ourselves even though there is wonderful benefit from listening to or reading other people's thoughts, reflections, and meditations on the Scripture.

So, what should we expect when we read the Scripture? I think they're kind of four basic categories.

One is that we should expect the Bible to be informative, that we should learn, that we should gain knowledge about God, about ourselves, about life with God in this world, and how all that works, and therefore what we need to pursue and the kind of people that we're trying to become and how to live with God on His terms for our personal lives. So it should inform us.

Second thing is it should be revelatory, and by this I mean self-revelatory and that God himself should become known to us through the Scripture. The truth is is that any open, honest communication is by nature self-revealing. You know, it's probably part of the reason why in many situations or contexts, we are very careful about what we say. We're careful about choosing our words, what we reveal, and we don't reveal because we know that what we say will let people know something about ourselves:

• Who we are

• What's important to us

• What we value

• How we think

• Things about our character and our life that are private to us

But we can't really help it when we talk and we talk about things, we are personally invested in it and people get to know us. Well, you can expect that from the Bible. The Bible is in essence God communicating in the text that was written by people but it is in fact God's communication. And because it is open and honest communication, you will come to see God to see who he is.

And because of the Holy Spirit's work in the Scripture through the Scripture I should say that you will not only know about God, but you will come into personal contact with the Living God who is speaking through the text. We can expect to encounter God, to experience God, to actually get to know Him and to be drawn into relationship with him as he is being revealed through the Scripture. So that's the second thing.

The third, is that Scripture should be transformative and that the things that we learn about life with God, what we come to know about God himself as we were drawn even into relationship with him, should change us. They can take root in us again accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit. They work to convict us, to convince us, to challenge us, to encourage us, and even to begin to heal and to reshape us. Reading Scripture can be a transformative experience.

Now, when you put those three together: when we are being informed, when God is being revealed, and we are being transformed, one of the things that results from that is that we are freed and we are empowered to participate better with God in his mission in the world. Our very lives become a more accurate reflection of who God is and that we are made able to do the kinds of things that God does. To do the work, and the works of God in the world allowing us to be a part of God's mission being furthered. And I think also on a more personal level that we become able to be open and responsive to God's unique invitation to our lives. His unique calling on us as to how he wants us to be a special part of his revealing himself in our world and unique circumstances of the world we live in and how he wants to use us and what we can do with him and for him as we live. So, this should be our expectations and really our experience when we read Scriptures.

So be sure to tune in to the next episode when I talk about why it's important that you read the Bible for yourself and not just listen or read other people's thoughts reflections and meditations about the Scripture.

Thanks for joining me today and join me at Lectio4Life.com.