13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
This verse encapsulates the causes of decline in any church movement. In fact, I look around the American church and I see a rampant disregard for these elements in so many churches and by extension the lives of believers. No wonder we have no power to change our own lives, our culture and our world. We think we can do it without God’s methods. Now I admit that public reading is not the central focus of our church culture as it was in the early church. They of course did not have printing presses, speech recognition software, text-to-speech capabilities and the internet. If they wanted to know what the Scriptures said on a subject, they had to go to the local Synagogue to find a copy of the Old Testament. There they could read, if they could read, and if they could find the passage. Remember, no index or table of contents. So they would ask the Rabbi or Scribe for some help. Since it was their job to study and copy the Scriptures, they could help get you to the passages you needed. As you can see that took a lot of effort. To do the same thing still takes effort. Unfortunately, some believers don’t spend any time during the week reading and studying the Scriptures for themselves, even though they have a copy in their own homes. We might have the ability to read the words, but not the mind to truly understand what is being said. We don’t know the culture and history of those times, so we misinterpret what is being said because of our own ignorance of the subject matter. But the fault does not end with those who sit in the pews each week. Pastors have often abandoned both the preaching and the teaching of Truth for the expedience of ‘building a ministry.’ Our quick-fix culture has invaded the Church. But speeding up spiritual growth and maturity is not a process that can be accelerated. It takes time for God’s Word to work the sin-habits out of our lives. Sin is at the very core of our being, so it takes time to absorb and infiltrate our souls. We have to grow in our personal knowledge of Him. We have to spend time in His presence and have meaningful conversations with Him. Without hearing the Word read, preached and taught, we will not reach the maturity in Christ that is needed to change our world. No ignoring the uncomfortable passages, or skipping over parts we disagree with. We need the whole Word to change every corner of our redeemed soul. No shortcuts!
The Arnold Journey 