Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott.

There are two fundamentally different ways we can encounter the Bible. One approach is to treat

reading scripture like a one-way street. A one-way street where we grasp

the words cognitively, I mean, we're reading them on the page, but we maintain our own sense of

authority over the encounter, over the experience. In this unidirectional engagement with the Bible, we take what we want to hear

and we ignore or even reject what we don't want to hear. On this one-way street of encountering

God's word, we kind of act like picky eaters in a cafeteria line. Yes, I'd like that encouragement. Give me more of that

reassurance, please. But hey, I'm on a strict conviction-free diet. So if there's anything in here

that would make me feel like I'm not okay right now, if it's going to make me feel like I need

to change my life, just know that I'm allergic to it. On the one-way street, we are the final arbiters of what is true

and good. And the Bible is just an instrument that we use to affirm what we already want to believe

about God, about ourselves, and the world around us. But of course, there's another kind of road we can take when journeying

through the Bible. And that's a two-way street. Encountering the Bible this way still involves

our effort and our intellect while intaking new information. We're still reading the words on the page.

But on the two-way street, we're not simply encountering the Bible. We're letting the Bible encounter us. On the two-way street, we're not in a cafeteria line as picky eaters. No, instead, we're sitting down to a feast and we're trusting the master chef to bring out the food that we

really need. We're open to whatever God has for us. We let him be the final arbiter of what's true

and good. And in that way, we open our lives to being taught, corrected, convicted, trained, and nourished by God

who works through His Word. The Bible itself assumes that we're meant to engage with it on a two-way

street relationship. Hebrews 4 12 through 13 says it this way, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged

sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and

attitudes of the hearts. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give an account.

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