The Bible can just be another meaningless history book if you don’t read it with some context. Context is a frame of mind, or background information. Without the context, words on a page are just words on a page. The context of us, as Christ followers, for reading the Bible is to become living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as our true and proper worship (Romans 12:1). So how do we do that? First, we need to have faith. According to Hebrews 11:1-2, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” Do you know so many people tell me, “pastor jonathan, I was a Christian, and then I lost my faith. I know youre a pastor and all, but I just think all that Christian stuff is for people who dont know any better because we all came from monkeys.” And I shake my head every time I hear that. The reason we read the Bible every single day is SO WE DONT LOSE HEART for our lives. Its so easy to get discouraged. I remember one day I asked God to help my hockey team win one game. I prayed, God, please let us win at least one game this year. We were 0-15 at the time and we were playing the worst team in our league for our very last game, they were 1-14 (they beat us once). I remember, that game, we lost 8-2 I scored two goals that game and I was playing defense and left wing. The other guys on my team, after the game, they cried, a lot of them promised to never play hockey again. I played hockey again and again for a lot of more years afterward. But I remembered what the Bible told me and I shared that with my team: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:10) The Bible is the story of our faith perfector, who is, Jesus Christ. We study the Bible, we read the Bible because it is a constant reminder that no matter what happens in our lives, we can see the life of Jesus and everything he had to lose for people like us who keep making mistakes and are imperfect. God forgives us every single time, no matter what! Thats what the Bible reminds us. Thats what we can never forget. Every single chapter and verse is about how God loves us so much that he is willing to humble himself to forgive us and all he asks is that we not be conceited. Lets say this together: The Bible reminds us not to be conceited. Therefore, with that context, we need to read the Bible using our famous acronym: SOAP. S Scripture: Open your Bible to the reading passage for today. Then read it and look for a verse that speaks to you and write it down. O Observe: What do you think God is saying to you? Write down the things you learn. A Apply: Ask yourself, how can you use this right now in your life and then do it! P Pray: Ask God to help you and listen for Him. SOAP is very handy when reading the Bible. When we use the SOAP method, we maximize what the Bible has for us very practically and very easily. Let’s try it today.
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