The Discipline of Study
God is real. His name is Jesus, and Raquel and I know Him personally.
Over the next 12 weeks we would be honored if you would allow us to share 12 practices we have made staples in our lives in order to actually get to know Jesus.
(In our Jesus community we describe the time we take to practice these disciplines as “the secret place.” So if you see that phrase used throughout our blog, just know that it refers to any time and place we set aside to meet with Jesus.)
I’m going to begin by clarifying a few things. These next 12 weeks will by no means be an exhaustive study of the spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith. Our goal is to share with you the practices that we have found to be effective in our pursuit of Jesus. We recognize that different groups who love and follow Jesus may have a different set of spiritual disciplines or view them slightly differently from the way we do. If that describes you, we respect you and we are totally fine agreeing to disagree. Also, everything we discuss in our blog is within the context of biblical community. We have people in our lives who observe the practice of these disciplines and the fruit they produce in our lives. It’s super important that we all have people who we are accountable to in every area of our lives. One, it keeps us humble. Two, these people can see the weak areas in us that we can’t see in ourselves at times. Three, it protects us from self sabotage.
Now that that’s out of the way, I have the pleasure of starting us off with our perspective on the first discipline: study.
I’m going to try to keep it simple. When Raquel and I say we practice the discipline of study in our lives, we are saying we make time to read our bible (the word of God) daily.
Deuteronomy 11:18-21 New Living Translation (NLT)
18 “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.
Now, we are not necessarily talking about reading our bibles the way we would read for pleasure, nor the way we would read a textbook. There are times for that, quite often actually, but reading our bibles that way never really led to us finding joy or satisfaction in Jesus. When we talk about the daily, sustainable, transformative, and life bringing practice of study, we are talking about reading our bible with three goals in mind:
1. To discover the heart/character of Jesus
Psalm 103:7 New Living Translation (NLT)
7 He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
If we only read our bibles to learn about the really cool things God did in the past, we may never get to really know Jesus. We might be tempted to look at past miracles, provision, breakthrough, and revelation as cool one-time events. If we are reading our bibles with the intention of discovering the nature, the heart, and the character of God these stories reveal who He is to us, not just what He did.
Romans 15:4 New Living Translation (NLT)
4 Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
2. To discover how Jesus defines good and evil, right and wrong, and adopt them.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 New Living Translation (NLT)
14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Psalm 119:105 New Living Translation (NLT)
105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
and a light for my path.
This is one of those places in life where a line in the sand was drawn for us. When deciding whether or not we were going to be followers of Jesus, Raquel and I had to determine if we were ok living life His way. We decided to give Him our yes and ever since we have been doing our best to imitate the life He demonstrated as well adopting His definitions of right and wrong.
The word of God, both the old and new testament, is direct access to what Jesus says about good and evil, right and wrong. However, this does not mean that it is always clear to us! Men and women who are more devout and intelligent than Raquel and I have argued over the contents of this book for centuries. Many men and women have twisted the content of this book to manipulate, control, and oppress others. This is why we must humbly come before Jesus as we study His word and ask Him to reveal His definitions of good and evil, right and wrong to us, instead of looking to confirm our own ideas about good and evil, right and wrong. (This is also where community and accountability make a HUGE difference.)
Hebrews 4:12 New Living Translation (NLT)
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
Jesus does not force anyone to follow Him, nor does He force us to see the truth. If we want truth it is our responsibility to seek after it and to actively be looking out for our own biases and preconceived notions. The good news is, if we are practicing the discipline of studying the bible, it returns the favor. The bible is also a standard to which we can compare ourselves and determine our spiritual and emotional/mental health.
Which leads me to our final goal
3. To put Jesus’s thoughts and ways of thinking, into our heads
Romans 12:2 New Living Translation (NLT)
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The more we regularly practice the discipline of study (searching for the heart and character of Jesus and familiarizing ourselves with His definitions of right and wrong) the more we will begin to think like Jesus. He’s seriously amazing in every way imaginable, the one person in the universe who cannot be exaggerated. The discipline of study is so transformative (especially when combined with the discipline of meditation, don’t worry, we will get to that later) because it gives us a new paradigm through which to observe the world around us!
When we think like Jesus, we begin to talk and act like Him too.
In our first blog post (here) we said that we believe the bible is like a sign, a map, or a set of footprints that lead us to Jesus. We practice the discipline of study so that we can follow the bible to the person of Jesus and learn how to live and love like Him.
We pray at the very least that this was interesting and helpful. Before I wrap up, I want to share a few practical tips Raquel and I utilize when setting apart time to practice the discipline of study.
We literally schedule a time and location to read our bible
We set the atmosphere; a candle, some soaking worship or instrumental music, a cup of coffee, and open a physical bible and run our fingers over the pages as we read aloud.
Before we begin reading, we pray that Jesus would meet us in this time.
We expect Him to meet with us as we search for Him
Raquel and I pray the next time you open your bible you meet Jesus like never before. Please comment below and let us know if you have thought similarly about the discipline of study or if you are going to try any of the tips we recommended.
Until next time,
We Are Ecclesia
