Read, Mark, Learn, and Inwardly Digest

by David Haberstock

Do you read your Bible much? Like most Christians, I have wrestled (and still wrestle) with having a consistent habit of reading the Bible. Why is that? Because like all things that are good for me (healthy eating, being active, getting to bed early enough to have a good night’s sleep), my sinful nature doesn’t want to do it.

Have you noticed that Sunday morning is a day when you tend to wake up cranky, or things go all wrong? Satan is actively working through the little, tiny things of life to make sure you don’t go to church, or if you do, you’re angry and distracted.

It’s the same with Bible reading. It’s important. It’s necessary for the health of your faith, for spiritual encouragement (Romans 15:4). And since the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), Satan and your own sinful flesh will do whatever they can to keep you from hearing God’s Word preached or reading it on your own.

People bemoan that kids these days can’t memorize things, but that is silly. People of every age have commercial jingles and hundreds of songs from our youth locked away in our heads. And teenagers have untold maps of video game worlds, and the lore of their favourite movie or book series locked away. The word geek is used to describe someone who is really into something and knows all about it. Well, we Christians are called to be geeks for God’s Word.

I asked myself a while back: if I know all the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter from reading the books and watching the movies again and again, shouldn’t I have an even better knowledge of the lore of the Bible? After all, this is not just a fantastical world of fun, but the real world of God’s miraculous interaction with humanity!

So, I have been working away at knowing the lore of the Old Testament. Knowing who the various figures are, what the place names and human names mean (they explain a lot!), and what events have happened in that place over the generations.

When you lock into your mind the history and timeline of events and the map of where things took place, the events and patterns of biblical history come alive in your faith. You can see how our Lord has ordered things throughout time to add layers and layers of meaning on top of one event or another. It helps you understand God’s ways, and the wisdom of the Proverbs, when you see God at work in history.

But reading your Bible has an extra blessing and benefit. It frees you from this world of darkness (Colossians 1:13) and renews your mind (Romans 12:2). It enlightens your mind and the way you interpret the world (Matthew 6:22-23), freeing you from the darkness and despair that are a natural response to life in this world.

Reading your Bible is also worldview maintenance. It helps you maintain not just a positive attitude but the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). This is important in today’s world, as there is so much media and messaging that we get caught up in, and it is easy to get carried away in the flood of it (Revelation 12:15, 1 Timothy 4:1-3).

Consider how the media you listen to—without constant input from God’s Word—might slowly plant false ideas in your head or philosophies that eventually fight against the teachings of our Lord (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). So, read, study, inwardly digest God’s Word. Ask your pastor to teach a study on something you are interested in, or for suggestions of good books or podcasts that can help you understand God’s Word more deeply.

In the end, this is spiritual warfare. This is a tearing down of every lofty opinion or worldly philosophy that would hold itself up as a stronghold of satanic thought to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. And in our day, there are so many unbiblical philosophies that are baked into our culture (Modernism, post-Modernism, Hegelian-Marxism, etc.), which colonize our thinking and don’t allow us to think thoughts of God.

So, how do we combat this? Read your Bible. Study it. Learn from it.

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Thy holy Word we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which Thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

– Collect for the Word
(The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 14)

Rev. David Haberstock is Lutheran Church Canada’s former Central Regional Pastor and new President-Elect.

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