16 Nov Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You
The story is told of an experiment that was done with the Mercury astronauts to probe the limits of the human body. They fitted some astronauts with a pair of goggles with multiple lenses that, when you put them on and looked through them, turned the world upside down. The astronauts had to go about their everyday lives, and even their astronaut training, seeing everything upside down.
It was massively disorienting, and initially made the simplest tasks somewhere between difficult and impossible. An amazing thing happened after about 30 days, however. The brain rewired itself and their world flipped right side up again, even though they were still wearing the goggles.
Then, after the experiment was over, they took the goggles off. When they did, their world turned upside down again. And after around 30 days, it flipped right side up again.
The world turns upside down when we become a Christian
When a person becomes a Christian, or when a nominal Christian begins to take Christianity seriously, it’s as though a pair of goggles that had turned the world upside down is removed. The world actually turns right side up, but at first, it seems upside down. Suddenly, we must deny self, the natural motivating force in life, and begin choosing alternatives that are, initially, undesirable.
The alternatives aren’t truly undesirable. In fact, they are the way to true purpose and meaning in life. They just seem undesirable at first glance to someone who has not yet abandoned himself to an eternal perspective.
We are now told we must (or so it seems to us)
- Choose God over happiness
- Others over self
- The eventual over the immediate, however
- We don’t truly choose God over happiness. Choosing God is our avenue to happiness. But it can seem the opposite at first.
- We don’t truly choose others over self. Choosing to serve others over self is the avenue to rich and rewarding relationships. But it doesn’t seem that way at first.
- When we choose the eventual over the immediate in order to remain within the will of God, the hope of disproportionate abundant reward that is promised to us when we do, makes it a wise choice.
But at first glance, making this transition is as foreign to our natural selves as putting on goggles that turn the world upside down.
The challenge for the Christian is to master the Bible so well that the Bible masters us. As we exercise the faith and spiritual disciplines to master the Bible, God uses the Bible and the Holy Spirit to master us, changing us from worldlings to heaven-lings, from those who live for self to those who live for God, from those who live according to a temporal perspective to those who live according to an eternal perspective.
Scripture challenges us to master the Bible so well that the Bible masters us.
- We are to integrate the word into the entire fabric of our everyday lives.
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
This passage tells us that the commandments should be in your heart, not merely your head. Then it tells us that there are four main ways we can make sure the commandments make it to our heart.
- Teach implies a formal education process
- Talk implies integrating Scripture into daily life (sit, walk, lie down, rise up)
- Bind implies a system to keep the Scriptures in front of you (memorization is best)
- Write implies structuring your environment to encourage biblical awareness
- Have things in your environment that might turn your mind to Scripture. (This might include artist renderings of Scripture, pictures of Bible characters/truth/events, playing Christian music, etc. I have a cross above my computer desk as a reminder to make sure everything I do on my computer is honoring to Christ.)
- Eliminate negative things. (Remove everything from the home that does not honor Christ)
- We are to hide the Word in our hearts
“Your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11)
- We are to meditate on the Word day and night
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8)
- We are to meet temptation with a knowledge of Scripture
In Matthew 4, we see three separate instances of Satan tempting Jesus. With Satan’s every attempt, Jesus rebuffed the temptation by quoting Scripture.
- We are to fight spiritual warfare with a knowledge of Scripture
As part of the armor with which we are to do battle in the spiritual war, Paul included the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Immersing our minds in the Word is essential to being transformed into children who live out God’s will and experience His blessing in their lives.
Modern neuroscience validates that saturating our minds with truth can play a major role in changing us spiritually.
Modern neuroscience research confirms that if we do the things Scripture tells us to about immersing our minds in Scripture and God’s truth, it will change our brain and encourage greater spiritual maturity.
Neuroscience reveals that repetition is the key to mental ownership, and that if something is important, it must be repeated until it changes us.
When we
- Integrate the Word into the entire fabric of our everyday life
- Hide the Word in our hearts
- Meditate on the Word day and night
- Meet temptation with a knowledge of Scripture
- Fight the spiritual warfare with a knowledge of Scripture,
these changes can happen:
- The truth begins to come to the surface of our conscious thought, affecting our attitudes, values and beliefs. It enables us, for example, when we get angry, to recall verses and truth about anger and to use that information, consciously, to help us keep from acting in anger.
- Then, through continued repetition, the truth sinks into our subconscious where it lodges as controlling beliefs, and begins to transform our attitudes, values and behavior. When that happens, it takes spiritual growth to a whole new level, and instead of enabling us on a conscious level not to act in anger, it now, on a subconscious level, changes us so that we don’t get angry in the first place.
- It also triggers our Reticular Activating System, the part of our brain that chooses what to let into the brain and what to keep out. As a result, we start perceiving truth that escaped us before. It creates new insights, revises assessments of importance, sees greater significance, connects dots, making us more aware, insightful, smarter.
- Finally, the subconscious bubbles that mental gold back up to the conscious where we can also intentionally act on it, multiplying its power.
Dr. Caroline Leaf, a Christian neuroscientist, has written a book titled, Switch On Your Brain, in which she unpacks the findings of neuroscience and shows how it all integrates with what the Bible told us thousands of years ago. In the book she wrote, “When you understand the power of your thought life…, you truly begin to get a glimpse of how important it is to take responsibility for what you are thinking. God was so serious about us capturing our thoughts and renewing our minds that he gave us science as an encouragement.”
Summary
As we begin integrate the Word into the entire fabric of our everyday lives, as we hide the Word in our hearts, as we meditate on it day and night, as we learn Scripture well enough to fight temptation with it and use it in spiritual warfare, our brain rewires itself and the world begins to turn right-side up.
So, I encourage every follower of Christ to take up the challenge before each of us to master the Bible the so well that the Bible masters you.
To aid in that process, I’ve created a short video with some additional helpful information which, if you haven’t done so already, you can sign up for here.
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