Back to being Radical

Between my Judah’s Exile and Restoration class and switching into Biblical Hebrew three classes behind, I’ve had my work cut out for me this week.  I’ll be happy just to make it through Monday/Tuesday when everything is due.  Despite the heavy workload, I’ve still been trying to start and end my day by reading my Bible – a chapter of Genesis in the morning and a Psalms for prayer before bed.  Well today, since I have 200 pages to read in a book about the philosophy and history of hermeneutics, I decided to set aside an hour to read my Bible and dive back into David Platt’s book.  Hopefully, it’ll energize me to get the rest of my work done, and it’s actually something that I read in Platt’s book that encouraged me to start spending more time in my Bible and less time reading commentaries.

                In the 2^nd chapter of Radical, Platt continues to talk about his time with the church in Asia.  They had asked him to join with them just do lead a Bible study, so they met in the afternoon and talked late into the night about everything from “dreams and visions to tongues and Trinity.”  They asked him if they could meet again the following day – all day.  So when they met again, he read from Nehemiah 8.  When they adjourned to take a short break, they told him that they had never studied Nehemiah before and asked if he would stay for a while to teach them the whole Old Testament.  And when they got done with the Old Testament, he stayed to teach them the New Testament!  Day after day they would read the Bible from early in the morning till late in the evening, over 12 hours each time.  These people had such a craving for God’s word!  I know new believers in the states that don’t have that much of a hunger, let alone us believers that have been following God for years.  I had to ask myself, when was the last time I just picked up my Bible to read it and to learn?  I so often go to commentaries because they’re intellectual, they already have the answers to my questions written down, and they’re easier to read.  But why go to a secondary source when I have the primary source in my hands?  Isn’t that the best way to learn?  Not that secondary sources aren’t great, they often expand our viewpoint and help us to answer inquiries we may have, but it can never be as good as the real thing.  It really inspired me to start reading my Bible more.

                So my goal, while I’m here, is to start reading my Bible for an hour a day and then work my way up as my studies allow.  Thankfully, I’m really lazy… so it’s not like I’ll be putting my Bible aside to walk around Jerusalem all day.  And my Gameboy won’t charge and the internet is awful and there is no TV on campus.  All my typical distractions have been removed.  It’s interesting to see that without all this media and technology, I get more sleep, wake up earlier, and spend time with God.  I hope that when I get home next year, I can keep up these same habits.