If you know me, you know that a lot of things about American "Christianity" peeves me greatly. Such offenders are "the sinner's prayer", nonrepentant but emotional altar calls, selfish "praise" songs, and many more things that I go way overboard with criticizing. However, one of the most destructive things to the Church today is being fed a devotional-only diet. When I ask people what God has been showing them, so many people (at school especially) tell me about this devotional book that they are reading and how it has a verse, a story, and then a thought for the day. To people who read devotional books only: YOU ARE MISSING OUT. Seriously. God's Word has much better things for you than human "inspiration" that you can get from the Christian book store.
I must preface this with saying that not all Christian books are bad, and I am certainly not claiming that anything said about God by humans is wrong (since I am a human and I am writing about God right here.) I read stuff by John Piper and Jonathan Edwards, and I use a study Bible...but we should never listen to humans talking about God more than we should listen to God talking about Himself, directly through His Word. If devotional books or "religious literature" is all that you are reading, they are getting in the way of what God wants to say to you directly. Here is why Devo over Divinity is full of fail:
1. Devotional books usually have very little Bible in them. If something is not pouring with truth, it does not deserve your attention. You will never be a true student of the Word if all that you're getting from it each day is one verse that someone else picked out.
2. People interpret scripture wrongly...humans are selfish, so devotionals tend to preach the Bible humanistically. But friends, the Bible is not a "manual for life" but rather the story of God, and who can tell the story of God better than God Himself? We always try to take scripture and try to tie it into how it can apply to us, or how it can make us feel better about ourselves. That brings no true repentance. Austin and I were talking about this and we concluded that a better question than "What Would Jesus Do?" is "WHY Would Jesus Do?"
3. It's hard to rely on the insights of someone else for divine revelation from God. It's like if someone gave me a chocolate chip cookie, I ate it, threw it up, gave it to you, and then you ate the regurgitated stuff. You'd still salvage some of the chocolate chips and everything, but it definitely wouldn't taste as good as if you would have eaten the cookie fresh and straight from the source. Regurgitated inspiration is neveras piercing as the real thing.
4. Devotional books cost money! My ESV Bible cost $5 from Family Christian and I have learned so much from it. I can use this book that cost me less than a meal at Arby's for the rest of my life, and even if I use it for the rest of my life, I will still not harvest every treasure to be found therein. Bibles are a much smarter study choice economically!
5. If you rely on the devo book for your Bible reading, you will not know the context of the scripture. An example is Philippians 4:13...everyone teaches that this verse can be applied to winning a soccer game or getting an A, but if you read Chapter 4 and actually the whole book of Philippians, you will find that this verse (in context) is so richly speaking about contentment in Christ alone, even when you are suffering for His Name's sake. The humanistic approach that devotional books take towards verses like Philippians 4:13 cheapens the meaning for moldable minds like Americans today.
6. Devotional books are shallow. Hebrews 5 says by now you should be teachers, but you're still drinking milk. Get on meat, you guys! Quit settling for shallow teachings when God has much deeper things in store for you to learn!
7. The Bible is universal. Discussing scripture with others is easier since the Bible is used all across the world by every Christian of every age, race, language, and background; you don't have to be limited to talking about what happened in your devotional book, since not every Christian owns Joyce Meyer or whatever else you're reading.
8. God is much better at making sense of His Word than humans are. Reading the Bible is hard, and there are definitely some parts that seem to contradict. But His Word is perfect, and He will give you insight if you ask for it. If you're confused about something, don't see what another human has to say about it before you see what GOD (who wrote the Bible so definitely knows what it means) has to say about it.
9. If you spend your whole life taking what others say as truth, you will be very quickly confused. I learned this first-hand recently, and it was awful...You have got to study the Bible for yourself. Not everyone is right, but the Bible is always right.
10. Human insight will be one-sided. A few years ago, I went through a phase where I thoroughly studied what one author had to say about God, so my view of God was solely love love love, and I would totally ignore any verses about His wrath (even though the Bible definitely portrays that characteristic of His.) Then this summer, I went through a phase where I thoroughly studied what one preacher had to say about God, so my view of God was solely justice justice justice, and I felt uncomfortable when reading verses about His love. God is loving and just; the Bible paints the full picture of Him. Don't rely on human insight to accurately portray His character.
So read the Bible. Journaling is definitely important (or "man-booking", if you're a boy and think journaling is only for girls.) If you do not have a journal or somewhere to write down what God is showing you, tell me and I will get you one. If you are reading the Bible and not remembering what you learn, what good is it? So get in the Bible. Every day. Throw away your devotional books if they are taking the place of God's Word. Let's keep each other accountable about this; I want to be able to talk about the Bible; it is much more exciting than talking about movies or TV.
If you don't know where to start, some great books of the Bible that I recommend are:
-Ecclesiastes (this world has nothing for us)
-John (what Jesus was like)
-Matthew (what Jesus said to do)
-Romans (very difficult, but excellent for studying about our faith)
-Ephesians (what God did for us when He saved us)
-1 John (the marks of a true Christian)
-Psalms (God is awesome)
-Isaiah has gems of amazingness all throughout, but it's easy to take things out of context with that book so be careful. Isaiah 53 is all about Jesus. It's great.
If you have any questions or would like to talk about what God is showing you, please let me know! I love you so much!
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