Bible Bridges: Part 2

Have you ever driven on a very long bridge covering more than a mile of ocean blue? It’s exciting to drive over water at high speeds. However, speed on a journey seldom yields the greatest enjoyment. Sometimes the best trips are when we get out of our car and gaze at the scenery, or perhaps even to do a little fishing!

Crossing bridges is an idea I want to apply to approaching the Bible. I think it’s a very helpful concept, and hopefully it will illuminate your path. The idea of a bridge communicates a gulf between where we are and where we are heading. It could be a small stream, the mighty Mississippi, or even coastal ocean waterways. The bridge is a tool to get you to the other side safe and sound. But the bridge can also offer you a vantage point to take in the views and better grasp the landscape. This bridge metaphor as applied to Bible study has a number of drivers (yeah, pun intended):

First, there is a worthwhile destination. Just like driving over that bridge, we want to get somewhere. When getting behind the wheel of a Bible study, we must recognize this is no trip to the corner drugstore. The ultimate destination is the kingdom of heaven.

Second, it will take discipline and commitment. Think Pilgrim’s Progress! There will be a few twists and turns, pitfalls, discouragements, moments of joy, diversions, peril, but ultimately the glorious vision of God: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Lastly, just like some very tall bridges, when crossing the vast distances of God’s revealed story, there is a story arc. In one real sense, the Bible is a unified story: there is a beginning to the narrative, rising action, climax, and denouement. The Bible is a divinely woven script (perhaps why we call it “Scripture).

Questions

1. What kind of reading strategies do you find would best suit approaching the biblical text? Bible in a year? One Bible book each month? Following a lectionary calendar?
2. How might you benefit from reading from portions of the Bible differently, like you would a book? Think big picture instead of short snippets of Scripture. Could you put together enough of the larger story to explain it to a child?
3. What would it look like to substitute some hours in a week you might currently spend watching TV, reading Facebook, or pouring energies into life’s diversions, and instead devote yourself to the reading Scripture? Is there is 30 minutes in your day you could redeem for the sake of focused Bible time?

Prayer

May the Lord of heaven draw us to His precious Word. May our heavenly Father make the mind of Christ so penetrate us that our loved ones, friends, and coworkers sense there is something changing in us. The Lord grant us a lasting desire to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and situate our lives in His living presence through the reading of Scripture. And may we ponder afresh the love of God poured out through Christ on the cross, in whose name I pray. Amen.