Monday, January 31, 2011

The Bible as a mirror

One of the things that excites me more than anything are stories of people who are developing the habit of reading their Bibles daily. Many folks at Hub City are doing that. Like I've said before and will say again, reading the Bible daily is by far the best habit you could ever develop.

Well, I read a great perspective on reading the Bible in Mark Batterson's book Soul Print. He compares Scripture to a mirror.
Mirrors come in all sizes and shapes. Sometimes it's a prophet who helps us see the blind spots in our lives. Sometimes it's an epiphany that pulls back the veil and reveals the glory of God in new ways. But the greatest mirror, the mirror that gives us the truest reflection of ourselves, is Scripture.
The best form of self-examination is simply reading Scripture. Or maybe I should say, meditating on Scripture. After all, the Bible wasn't meant to be read. It was meant to be meditated upon.
The book of James likens the Bible to a mirror. Meditating on it is the way we can get an accurate picture of who we are. And it not only reveals the sin in our lives. It also reveals the image of God in us. As we meditate on the Bible, the picture of who we are in Christ develops like a Polaroid print.
When I was a kid, our family used to frequent a restaurant called White Fence Farm. There was always a wait, but I didn't mind because the waiting room was like an amusement park. They had games to play. They had a car museum. And there were crazy mirrors, like at carnivals, that would distort your face and figure. I'd spend fifteen minutes contorting myself into every shape imaginable.
In a sense, every mirror is a crazy mirror except Scripture. Scripture is the only perfect mirror because it reveals how our Designer sees us.
I could quote more. Use Scripture as a mirror. Read it. Meditate on it. Let God speak to you through it. It is the BEST habit you will ever develop!

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