How Readest Thou- Part 5: Loving God’s Word from Cover to Cover
By: Pastor Claude T. Stauffer
The article below is Part 5 of our series exploring both practical and purposeful approaches in studying God’s Word. Once Lost Ministries reached out to several seasoned believers, asking questions concerning their view and sincere study of Scripture in an effort to further equip and encourage believers from falling for any of the abundant pitfalls plaguing today’s “Christianity”.
“Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” Proverbs 30:5.
When the lawyer asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus didn’t simply send him back to the Old Testament. Jesus took him deeper. He asked a very serious question with the purpose of exposing the lawyer’s heart. (Luke 10:26)
Jesus not only challenged the lawyer’s direction but also his intention in reading the Bible.
This is often a missing piece when going to Scripture. The Bible isn’t a self-help book! It’s not some sort of mystical methodology! Let us all humbly consider why are we really reading God’s Word.
~Flynn Huseby (Once Lost Ministries)
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Question 1: Upon being born again, how did your view of God’s Word change?
I grew up in a very dysfunctional home where my mother suffered from mental illness. My home life was filled with fighting and violence. My father, a Swiss immigrant, came from a Methodist background so we attended the Methodist Church. He was on the local church board. I can remember get togethers my parents would have with other board members at our home where there was drinking, dancing, cigar smoking and well, stuff going on that even as a young kid, I knew was not in line with “church.” I could hear them from my bedroom.
In the Methodist church, they change the pastors every three years or so. I remember getting close to one pastor. He played softball with us in the church parking lot. A great guy. I remember him helping me through the confirmation process. Our two families got together, and he and his wife helped my dad with my mom. But then they were relocated, and the replacement was an old guy with no personality and a handshake like a dead fish. This led to my departure from the church due to disinterest.
I always believed in “God.” When my mother would go off and there’d be a battle in the house, I’d go to my room and cry out to God. But all I ever got in return was, “silence.” I was never a good student. I hated school for the most part. Preveniently, the Lord used my love of sports to help me through that part of my life. But when I graduated high school, I decided to get as far away from home as possible. My parents took me to a local college fair, and while there, I heard of this one school that had “the most bars per mile” and was a few hundred miles away. Perfect. That’s the one I chose to attend.
First semester I applied myself and made the Dean’s List. From there on out, it was all downhill. Partying, carousing, days in the dorm room playing cards with my buddies, boozing, beer runs, etc. Not good. I had to direction, no meaning in life, no purpose.
But then in 1976, I returned home for a semester break and found my sister (four years younger) totally changed. My sister had been getting into drugs, occult, Taro cards. She scared me with some of the stuff she was into. But now she was being nice to me. She cleaned my room. She took all my teasing and big brother meanness without retaliation. Finally, I asked her what was going on. Her response was, “Well, Claudie. I received Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, and you should too!” My response was indignation. I was thinking, “I’m the big brother. Big brothers don’t take advice from their little sisters.” But I couldn’t deny something was genuinely different about her.
I kept my eye on her and pressed her buttons to see if what she had was real. It was. Finally, I thought, “She’s in a cult. I better go to this church and check it out.” Thinking back on this, I’m sure I didn’t even know what a “cult” was, but I just didn’t like what was going on with my sister. It was convicting me. My sister had been inviting me, begging me to come with her. Finally, I agreed.
I didn’t know this at the time, but she had all her friends praying for me. I was a bit notorious because I had been arrested. This was a BIG deal; a BIG answer to prayer for me to come anywhere near the church. What they didn’t know was that I wasn’t coming to church to listen or receive. I was going there with ill intent, in hopes of putting the fear of God in them and tell them to leave my sister alone. I decided to go to the church coffee house. I was a pretty big, athletic guy at the time and was ready to impose my will on these “Christians.”
But when I got to the coffee house, the first thing I noticed was that the guys there were no wimps. I’d have to recalculate. I listened to the contemporary worship, and it wasn’t bad. They even had a message from the Bible. I don’t remember anything said that day as necessarily impacting my life. At the end of the night, the leader came up to me and asked if they could pray for me. I was a bit shocked and didn’t really know what that meant. So, I said, “Sure.” They gathered in a big circle, arms on shoulders and included me in the circle. It was a bit weird, and I don’t remember what was prayed, but when I heard the “Amen” and opened my eyes, it was like smoke filled the room. It was surreal. I didn’t accept Christ that night, but I knew there was something going on there that was real.
To make a long story short, I did accept Christ as Savior soon after that. I transferred from my college to a local university and began attending my sister’s church.
One of the first things my sister told me upon becoming a Christian changed my life. She knew about calling to God with no answer. She said, “When you pray, you talk to God. When you read the Bible, He talks to you.”
THAT TOTALLY CHANGED MY LIFE.
Now I could get answers. Now I could read what the Lord wanted for me. Now there was a purpose to read, to live for Him, to know Him, to know He loved me, and I loved Him. The Word of God opened the door to my relationship with Jesus.
The next big impact in my Christian walk was from something a Sunday School teacher taught me and then gave me. He taught me the value of memorizing Scripture and then gave me a Through the Bible in a Year track and encouraged me to read through the Bible each year. I’ve been doing that ever since, saturating myself with God’s Word. This has been the most productive spiritual practice I’ve found as a Christian and as a pastor!
Question 2: What is the purpose of God’s Word?
- God’s Word is the Gospel seed God uses to save us – Matthew 13
- God’s Word is the inspired Word of God – 2 Timothy 3:16
- The purpose of the Word of God is to be the basis for doctrine, proving right from wrong, correcting, instruction in the Christian life, and is God’s means to fulfill and make us complete, “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
- God’s Word is the exclusive and sole source of God’s truth – John 17:17. This is important because God’s word calls us to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:29). Jesus came to bear witness to God’s truth (John 18:37). That truth is found in the word of God (John 17:17).
Question 3: What is your personal approach to reading and studying God’s Word?
As mentioned above, I read through the Bible each year. Presently, I’m using M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan. Olive Tree Bible Study program has this so I can use it on my iPad. From time to time, if I find myself in a rut, I’ll go on a little study journey or vacation in a part of Scripture outside my reading plan.
I don’t go anywhere without my Bible. In olden days before cell phones, I used to carry a pocket Bible with me. I never go anywhere without a Bible. I heard once that Francis Shaeffer used to keep his Bible on his night table so at night he could just reach over to it and pat it for comfort.
Question 4: Do you have any advice given by others that has been helpful in reading and studying the Scriptures?
Pray. Don’t rush through your time with the Lord and His Word. “When the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense” is a good motto to observe.
I study inductively (Observe and Ask Questions / Answer and Interpret / Apply practically what you glean). This is a great way to approach God’s Word.
Question 5: Any recommended study helps and resources?
Honestly, I don’t use a lot of “helps.” If I use outside sources, I use them only AFTER I’ve done my own personal study. I’m a stickler about plagiarism. I don’t see AI etc. as necessarily a good thing. I believe men of God called by Him should get their messages from Him not an intermediary source like inhuman AI. I listen to or watch good Bible teachers. My favorite is Chuck Smith and a few other Calvary Chapel pastors. But truthfully, I don’t see the value in parroting what someone else has said.
The most valuable resources I use are mostly etymological helps. The Bible Dictionary with the Complete Biblical Library is a favorite of mine. The Analytical Greek New Testament is a great source for parsing words in the New Testament.
One commentary I enjoy is Jon Courson’s Application Commentary. It’s easy to read, and I’ve never heard a dull sermon from Jon. I can’t say I agree 100% on everything he says, but he really brings out the typologies in Scripture and has great illustrations. The New Bible Commentary from Dallas Theological Seminary is also useful.
But as I said, I seldom use commentaries.
Question 6: Do you have a few favorite Bible verses regarding God’s Word and our approach to reading Scriptures?
That’s a tough one. I love the entire Bible, all of it. But this verse comes to mind:
“For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13
My life verse is Philippians 1:21 – “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” I’d like this to be on my tombstone.
My favorite portion of Scripture is:
“For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:12-21
But really, I have a running joke with my congregation that every portion of Scripture I’m teaching through is my “Favorite portion of Scripture.”
Pastor Claude T. Stauffer is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Hope, located in Amityville, Long Island, New York.
For more information, go to: https://www.calvarychapelofhope.org