Changi Chapel

I owe my theology, my ministry, and my life to this simple habit: Looking at the Book.

Of course it is God who gives us the desire for His Word. And gives us eyes to search the scripture and the mind to understand and comprehend it.

Knowing that God himself has spoken fully and inerrantly in the Bible leads us to look and look and look and look— undistractingly, assiduously, persistently, prayerfully, desperately — until we see, and until our hearts burn. 

As Martin Luther said, we beat on the text with our eyes and our mind and our heart and our prayer until it yields what God made it to yield. We wrestle with it, like Jacob and the angel, “I won’t let you go till you bless me.”

I believe one key to the strength of the church is that the people of God need to get steel in their spiritual spine, which is often forged in the furnace of their own first-hand dealing with God in the Bible.

Second-handers who simply listen to sermons and do not wrestle with the Biblical text and its related truth, will be wash-outs in these trying times. Second-handers dont last. They may have a form of godliness – but they will deny the power thereof.

When did you like Jacob wrestle with a Biblical passage till you were blessed by its spiritual insight?

John Piper
Pastor/Preacher/Bible Teacher

© John Piper – Excerpted, abridged and adapted from his recent blog. You can read the full article at www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-legacy-i-want-to-leave

Your comments, thoughts or suggestions are welcome. The body text is by the author, the header and the words in italics are mine – John B. Samuel

Twitter: @johnbsamuel