Publicly delighting in God's word

Following on from Tim Grant's post on ‘The word of God and the academy’ and given Tim's claim that the word of God belongs to the church (and not to the academy), we thought it would be worth taking some time to think about the place of the Bible in church.

One of the things we do with the Bible in our gatherings is read it aloud, in keeping with 1 Timothy 4:13 and Paul's encouragement to Timothy to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture”. But if you're the one doing the public reading, how do you go about preparing? Here are some suggestions from Jason Perini and Ian Carmichael in their course Reading the Bible Aloud.

The Bible is God’s word to us. It’s the narrative of God and humanity—you and me. It’s the great story of the origins, meaning, salvation and purpose. It’s the drama of creation, fall and redemption. It’s an epic true tale. It’s a banquet of literature, filled with poetry, narrative prose, warnings, letters and much more. And it all starts with those wonderful words: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.

It’s a book like no other. It’s a word—a word that is breathed out by God himself—the sword of the Spirit. And it teaches us, holds a mirror up to us, trains us and arms us to live. It’s our equipment for living.

So, do we need to prepare to read the Bible aloud? If so, how do we do it? Well, we think you do. And in this course, we would love to assist you in doing just that.

And here’s our first suggestion: we prepare by delighting in what we read, with humility. We prepare by tuning our hearts to the words we will read. In Psalm 119, the psalmist beams as he writes about God and his word. He says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps 119:103), “Give me life according to your word!” (Ps 119:25), “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies...” (Ps 119:35-36), “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Ps 119:105). So as a painter delights in their subject or a musician delights in their melody or an actor delights in their script—as a baker delights in their bread or a teacher delights in their students—a Christian delights in God’s word.

Watch the full introduction to the course and talk below (5:40 min):

Purchase the course through the Matthias Media online store. (NB If you are a GoThereFor.com member, login to access Reading the Bible Aloud immmediately.)