Reasonable TheologyIn this powerful new video from Desiring God, John Piper helps to fill us with awe and longing for God’s Word.
Video Transcript:
God wrote a book.
That reality blows me away every time I stop to think about it. Pages and pages of God. His thoughts, His words, His heart. Right there, just a few inches away.
I can carry it with me wherever I go. Read it whenever I want.
When we open the Bible, what do we see? We see God Himself in this book. We meet Him here or we don’t meet Him; not with any hope of friendship.
Reading the Bible is one of the most important things we can ever do. It’s more valuable than anything we own, sweeter than anything we have ever eaten. It is literally more important than breathing.
But that’s not always what we see and feel when we open the Bible. Our weak, tired, distracted eyes look – and all we see is a lifeless boring portrait on the wall.
But it’s not a portrait. It’s a window. It doesn’t hang lifeless in an old frame on the wall. It breaks through the wall into another world. The real world, the lasting world, the better world.
And through this window shines a divine light that changes everything around us. We all know that the road to knowing God is not easy.
Discipline and resolve are important, but they can carry you only so far. A few days, week, maybe a month. In the long run, we need something stronger, more compelling than discipline and resolve.
There are too many traps along the path, too many hurdles. At the root, the reason we don’t read the Bible is that we don’t want to read the Bible. We don’t see joy, peace and life when we see the leather binding on our shelf. We see a wall, not a window.
The boring portrait, not the never-ending beauty beyond. So we put it off, leave it shut, and move on. We stay in bed, and we miss the miracle.
The God who said let “Let light shine out of darkness” loves to speak light into hearts and minds.
God wrote a book! And with His book, these words in front of us, He wakens our dead, bored souls.
He frees us from bondage to sin, from desires that rob us of life. He comforts the depressed, inspires the discouraged, guides the confused.
He empowers us to make our lives count for His cause in the world. He satisfies us completely and forever with words – His words.
So, will I read my Bible tomorrow? Where else would I go? How else will I know him? How else will I prepare myself to enjoy Him forever?
Yes! I’ll spend the rest of my life looking out this window, watching, waiting for another sight of Him. Another miracle. Another glimpse of my God.
More at DesiringGod.com/Run
