Some of the best conversations I've had in my life have been sitting around a kitchen table, breaking bread while devouring the thoughts of another. Are you familiar with such a thing? Do you know what it is to pull up a chair and linger at a table with another for hours without end? Do you know what it is to freely pick the mind of another, asking question after question, and re-examining their answers?
I think we can all recall such experiences. Usually such conversations are with people who we truly have great respect for, and in some way look up to an admire. Why else would one linger so long? We linger because we believe the individual we are dinning with-- be it a friend, family member, or mentor-- has something truly important and insightful to say. We find their conversation a source of tremendous blessing.
How is it then, when we read the Scriptures and teach on them, that we do so in such a careless and casual way? We often skim through the "fly-over" territory of many of the Old Testament prophets and their endless series of woes and national aspirations. Likewise, with our poor brother the apostle Paul, we bumble, choke, and sputter our way through his writings, afraid to ask him to define important terms like propitiation, redemption, adoption, and impute. We nod and amen him sure enough, feigning understanding, but seldom ever grasping the essence of what he said. Instead, we search for cute little phrases that we can recite when we feel down, tempted, or want to invoke an amen from the back corner of the congregation.
But how often is it that we truly pull up a chair, and sit down with the apostles and prophets? How often is it that we linger over a verse, chapter, or book, and truly try to wrestle with and grasp just what it was they were saying? Do you try to get at what they were trying to get at? Do you attempt to wrap your mind around theirs and try to swallow, digest, and process what their message was? Do you take it home with you and try to sleep on it, only to find that you can't sleep because of the revelation you had from the message?
Brothers, let me encourage you to really linger over the Scriptures when you read them or when you preach them. It grieves me to think of all the bad teaching that is out there these days. And by bad, I don't mean teaching that is false and contrary to the Scriptures. By bad I mean teaching that merely dabbles with cute verses found in the writings of the apostles and prophets. It's bad because it's cheapening the fullness of what these men had to say, and robs others of true understanding. Pull up a chair, kick your shoes off, and rest a spell. Truly dine with these men. As the Spirit brooded over the surface of the deep when the world was created, so we should linger over the depth of these men and their teachings.
