If you’re reading this post because you want to know about the latest and greatest devotional material that will take you from a spiritual pee-wee to a titan, I’m afraid I’ve led you astray. However, if you’re here because hyperbole was the first thought that came to your mind when reading the title, then you’ve caught it.
The Next Big Thing
I find it fascinating how easily I’m sucked into the next big thing, when it comes to the Christian life. I remember the buzz that the ESV Study Bible created, with us all salivating over the maps and the articles and the contributors. And I remember how quickly after it was published that I shelved it, and began searching for the next big thing.
Don’t misunderstand me. I think the ESV Study Bible is a great tool. I would recommend it to anyone. And one thing that American Christianity has no lack of is resources. Free online commentaries, sermon transcriptions, reading plans, everything.
You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But You Can’t Make Him Read the Bible.
And yet for all the spiritual resources available to me, it seems there is such lack of power in them. How easy is it substitute the Word of God for words about the Word of God. I’m reminded of Paul’s exhortation that, “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” (2 Tim. 3:16, ESV). If we’re to feast on Scripture, I’m afraid I too often fall prey of getting fast food, rather than sinking my teeth into a hearty meal. Devotionals by powerful pastors. Commentaries by scholarly professors. Rather than the very words of God.
Not to say that these aren’t wonderful resources. They are. They’re just terrible substitutes for the Word of God. In 2013, I hope to read a great deal of writing about the Word of God. But I want it be founded upon a feasting of the Word itself.