Bread of Scripture
by Gary Johnson
Looking out the window, I see school buses in record number. Can you believe it? Summer has flown by. It’s already August! School is back in session. Students have returned to the classroom, from pre-school through graduate school, it’s time to study.
August is a perfect month to focus on the next spiritual discipline of 2024, and that being the study of Scripture. With 2024 being a presidential election year, we want to keep all eyes on Jesus. To help us do so, we are stressing the importance of knowing and practicing the twelve spiritual disciplines (one each month). The disciplines move us into deeper relationship with Jesus, and Scripture can help us do that in a profound way.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), and to that end, I enjoy the gift of smell. Some of my favorite smells are frying bacon, brewing coffee and fresh-baked bread. When I arrive home at the end of the day and get out of the car, I can smell freshly baked bread from the garage! Leah, my wife of 46 years, is well known for her homemade bread. She has a special recipe that produces five large loaves of bread in each batch. When I walk into the kitchen and see them cooling on the cupboard, I cut thick slices of the still-warm bread and cover them with real butter. If I’m not careful, I can eat half of loaf before supper!
When it comes to Scripture, I want to experience the same craving and satisfaction. Thinking of Scripture as the Bread of Life, here are five insights for studying Scripture to move me – and you – into a deeper relationship with Jesus. To help us remember them, let’s use the acronym B.R.E.A.D.
Basic
Bread is the most basic of foods. As a food staple across not only our country but around the world, people need bread. Similarly, the Word of God is our basic spiritual food source by which we grow as followers of Jesus Christ. Being that Scripture is supernatural (for example, Isaiah 55:11, Hebrews 4:12), it has the power to change us. The more we read the Word and take to heart what it says, we will grow more like Jesus than in any other way; more than reading any number of devotionals, hearing or singing along with any number of worship songs, etc. Scripture is THE Bread of Life that we most need.
Routine
When I eat Leah’s homemade bread, I have a routine. I slice it, and then often toast it, and finally, I blanket it with butter and cherry preserves. Similarly, when I “eat” Scripture, I have a routine. Being a morning person, I get up early and spend time reading the Bible devotionally. As I do so, I begin with this simple prayer: “When the child of God looks in the Word of God and finds the Son of God, he is changed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God.” Protecting this early morning time with the Lord, I encounter Him in His Word. Every morning, I have a standing “appointment” with God in His Word, and it is a most-welcome routine.
Example
When I first became a pastor, there was an elderly widow in the church who lived one block over from the church building, and she became an endeared friend of our family. Though she was going blind, Grandma Helen Chaudoin voraciously read the Word. With a high intensity light and an enormous magnifying glass, Grandma Helen read her large print Bible. She set for me, a young preacher, a sterling example of being a serious student of the Word and I followed her example. Moreover, I have passed that example to my sons and now my grandchildren. When one of my grandchildren read through the Word for the first time, we observe a “rite of passage” that we celebrate with that young one.
Appetite
I can’t get enough of Leah’s bread – and I can’t get enough of the Bread of Life. This year, I will read through the Bible twice. Each and every time I have read the Word, I notice something that appears “new” to me. I’ve read through the Bible in different versions, which reveals new and compelling insights. Each time I complete the reading of the Bible, I record the start and finish date for that reading in the front of my Bible so that my children and grandchildren can know of my hunger for the Word. Yet, I want them to see the difference that this spiritual food has caused, which brings me to…
Digest
We become what we eat. If I eat loaf after loaf of Leah’s bread, it will become obvious that my carb loading is having an impact physically on my body. Similarly, if I read Scripture over and again, and take to heart what is written in it, I will become what I eat. Digesting the Word of God will have an impact spiritually on my heart, mind and soul (i.e., my interior world). Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). So, whatever fills my interior world – and yours – will spontaneously be spoken in our words. We will become what we eat – and it will show.
The late Dr. Howard Henricks provided a list of ten questions to ask while reading Scripture, and those ten questions help in “digesting” the Word. While reading the Word, ask:
Is there…
an example to follow,
a sin to avoid,
a promise to claim,
a prayer to repeat,
a command to obey,
a condition to meet,
a verse to memorize,
a doctrinal truth to affirm,
a challenge to accept, and…
a person with whom to share what I just read?
I printed these questions on a card, laminated it, and use it as a bookmark in my Bible – prompting me to ask and digest the Word while reading it.
In August, don’t GO on a diet, but CHANGE your diet (if need be) and consume the Bread of Life.
Can our interior world ever be overweight?
