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What Is Scripture For? · Scripture-ish

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Ed Gallagher.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am reading my essay, What is Scripture For?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's part one of a series that I think I'll be posting on hearing the Word of God.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been paying attention to this Substack or the podcast,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: you will have I've noticed recently a couple of essays I've posted on the steps
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: of salvation.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of the essays,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: at least,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: was about using the steps of salvation,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: and by that I mean this formulation within Churches of Christ about how to respond
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  SPEAKER_00: to God's offer of grace,
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  SPEAKER_00: this formulation that basically everybody in Churches of Christ knows
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: that There are five steps to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here, believe, repent, confess, be baptized.
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  SPEAKER_00: And my proposal,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably not the only one who has proposed this,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: that we use those steps as steps for our spiritual growth.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is my attempt to do that, at least for the first step here.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the first essay in perhaps a series of essays that will appear on
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: the step here, hearing the Word of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the essay.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the Sermon on the Mount,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: the evangelist Matthew records a story told by Jesus about two builders.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: You probably remember singing a song about them.
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  SPEAKER_00: The wise man built his house upon the rock and And when
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: the rains came tumbling down, the house stood firm.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the foolish man built his house upon the sand,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the torrential rains caused his house to go splat.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: The point of this story,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to the song,
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  SPEAKER_00: is to encourage us to build our house on the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself explained the difference between the two builders.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: The wise builder exemplifies,
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  SPEAKER_00: according to Matthew 7, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the foolish builder illustrates everyone that heareth these sayings of mine
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: and doeth them not.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: The common element between both builders is hearing.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: If I may extend our Lord's metaphor,
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  SPEAKER_00: they both receive the blueprints for the house and they both study those blueprints.
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  SPEAKER_00: But only one of them builds his house according to the blueprints.
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  SPEAKER_00: To change images, only one of them follows the recipe.
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  SPEAKER_00: Only one of them executes the instructions of Jesus that they both hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hearing is not the problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: The problem is doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: What distinguishes these two men is action.
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  SPEAKER_00: And no wonder,
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  SPEAKER_00: for the words that they are being asked to perform are,
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  SPEAKER_00: as Jesus says, these sayings of mine.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which sayings exactly?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why, the Sermon on the Mount,
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  SPEAKER_00: of course, of which the conclusion is this very parable about the two builders.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hearing the Sermon on the Mount is fine, necessary, essential, but ultimately insufficient.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doing the Sermon on the Mount, now that's what matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's hard.
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  SPEAKER_00: I completely understand the guy who wants to build his house not up to code
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  SPEAKER_00: because building your house according to the code of Jesus is difficult,
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  SPEAKER_00: time-consuming, and expensive.
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  SPEAKER_00: The code of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, is filled with stuff I don't want to do.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean avoiding anxiety.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, naturally, it would be nice to do such a thing to avoid anxiety.
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  SPEAKER_00: But as Jesus knew, that's easier said than done.
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  SPEAKER_00: At least we all want to try that one.
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  SPEAKER_00: But what about the Golden Rule?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or the prohibition on judging others?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or the instructions on fasting?
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't really even want to try to follow that recipe.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the way my fellow churchgoers talk
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  SPEAKER_00: It makes me suspect that they have no interest in trying it either,
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  SPEAKER_00: which means that we are the fools in Jesus' parable,
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  SPEAKER_00: building our house without a foundation, counting on good weather.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: What is Scripture for?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's for doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Later in the Gospel of Matthew, we read these words also in red.
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  SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's Matthew 16, verse 24.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doing is important.
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  SPEAKER_00: How does this concept relate to the grace of God?
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  SPEAKER_00: And is doing really all that important?
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  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the grace of God mean that doing is not important?
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I see the tension.
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  SPEAKER_00: Take it up with Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's the one that said that the Son of Man shall reward every man according to his works.
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  SPEAKER_00: The point I'm trying to make is that hearing is not the problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doing is the problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both builders heard, the wise builder and the foolish builder.
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  SPEAKER_00: Only one of them executed what they heard.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hearing is not the problem.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hearing is sometimes the problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's Luke 8, verse 18.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are better and worse ways of hearing.
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  SPEAKER_00: This concept is illustrated for us in the parable of the sower,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is the immediate prelude to this saying of Jesus in the third Gospel.
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  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says, take heed how ye hear, he is thinking about the parable of the sower.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember that the seed represents the word of God that is distributed liberally.
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  SPEAKER_00: But people respond to that message in different ways, some better than others.
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  SPEAKER_00: Different kinds of people hear in different ways.
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  SPEAKER_00: Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: We might also think about the disciples of Jesus and how they struggled to hear Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: At one point,
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  SPEAKER_00: a group of Jesus' disciples actually said about one of Jesus' messages,
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a hard saying.
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  SPEAKER_00: Who can hear it?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even Jesus' closest disciples routinely misunderstood him.
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  SPEAKER_00: One time he warned them about the leaven of the Pharisees,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the disciples thought Jesus was reprimanding them for not bringing bread.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their years spent with Jesus could be understood as training for how to hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you about hearing,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I need to tell you that the point of Scripture is not hearing but doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Scripture calls on its readers or hearers to respond to the message.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: There are some literary works that are, I guess, merely for reading or hearing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a John Grisham book or something.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy the TV show Monk.
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  SPEAKER_00: And part of what I enjoy is that it is empty calories.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's fun, but there's not much there that I take with me once the TV is off.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
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  SPEAKER_00: many great works of art,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether literature or movies or whatever,
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  SPEAKER_00: do stick with a person and even encourage a particular behavior.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the movie It's a Wonderful Life has a very clear message about how
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  SPEAKER_00: the viewer ought to live.
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  SPEAKER_00: Same for Groundhog Day.
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  SPEAKER_00: Same for To Kill a Mockingbird.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's maybe less true for many Shakespeare plays.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is less true that these plays have a clear message about how people ought to live.
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  SPEAKER_00: But certainly the plays do force the audience who hears well to reflect
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  SPEAKER_00: on various aspects of life.
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  SPEAKER_00: These examples of great works of art get close to what scripture is doing in calling
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  SPEAKER_00: for a response.
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  SPEAKER_00: A John Grisham novel is for reading and enjoying.
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  SPEAKER_00: Groundhog Day,
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  SPEAKER_00: the movie,
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  SPEAKER_00: is for watching and Scripture is for reading or hearing and enjoying and
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  SPEAKER_00: for reflecting on life and for repenting and for enacting in life.
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  SPEAKER_00: The point of a John Grisham novel has been achieved when you read it and enjoy it.
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  SPEAKER_00: That is not true of Scripture.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture is for doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just think for a moment about the premier passage on Scripture in the Christian Scriptures.
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  SPEAKER_00: Paul's description of Scripture in his second letter to Timothy.
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  SPEAKER_00: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
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  SPEAKER_00: for reproof,
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  SPEAKER_00: for correction,
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  SPEAKER_00: for instruction in righteousness,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the man of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: or we might say the person of God,
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  SPEAKER_00: Anthropos, may be perfect, throughly, or completely, furnished unto all good works.
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  SPEAKER_00: Where does the profit of Scripture lie?
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  SPEAKER_00: Wherein is its usefulness?
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  SPEAKER_00: The apostle supplies the answer.
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  SPEAKER_00: Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Scripture is for doing, not just hearing things.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Think back to the greatness that was Christian America before
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  SPEAKER_00: the culture turned away from traditional values announced from America's pulpits.
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  SPEAKER_00: Before abortion on demand,
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  SPEAKER_00: before the sexual revolution,
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  SPEAKER_00: before prayer was removed from public schools,
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  SPEAKER_00: think back to America in the 1950s when placing the Ten Commandments
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  SPEAKER_00: in public spaces was uncontroversial.
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  SPEAKER_00: This was the decade when the words under God were added to the Pledge of Allegiance
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  SPEAKER_00: by an act of Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when, in God we trust, became the official national motto.
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  SPEAKER_00: Was America a more Christian nation in the 1950s?
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  SPEAKER_00: This was the decade when the Little Rock Nine walked to school amid a howling mob of Christians.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have no doubt that people heard the word of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the point of Scripture is not hearing, but doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: May we avoid sharing the guilt of our ancestors.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Thomas Akempis wrote six centuries ago,
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  SPEAKER_00: On the Day of Judgment,
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  SPEAKER_00: we will not be asked what we have read,
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  SPEAKER_00: but what we have done,
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  SPEAKER_00: not how well we have discoursed, but how religiously we have lived.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doing presupposes hearing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hearing is not the point, but zeal without knowledge won't get the job done.
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  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge is important, and that requires hearing.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: In the parable of the two builders at the end of the Sermon on the Mount,
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus presupposes the element of hearing because he is wrapping up a sermon.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now that his audience has heard,
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  SPEAKER_00: he needs to encourage them to do The hearing comes first,
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  SPEAKER_00: and so we return to Jesus' admonition to take heed how we hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: How shall we take heed?
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  SPEAKER_00: I have two suggestions for you.
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  SPEAKER_00: First, be committed to the principle that you haven't heard everything God wants
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  SPEAKER_00: to tell you in Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Second, what you need to be hearing in Scripture is Is instruction in spirituality?
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  SPEAKER_00: We will explore briefly both of these points.
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  SPEAKER_00: Before the Puritans sailed for America on the Mayflower,
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  SPEAKER_00: one of their leaders, John Robinson, preached a sermon that contained this line.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth from his holy word.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can find that line quoted at the Wikipedia page for John Robinson, Pastor.
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  SPEAKER_00: The point Robinson was making is that he did not know all the truth contained
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  SPEAKER_00: in Scripture and neither did anyone else.
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  SPEAKER_00: But believers should also be ready to see new truth therein.
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  SPEAKER_00: The epistle to the Hebrews gets at the same point by asserting that the Word
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  SPEAKER_00: of God is living and active.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is no dead letter.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is a common temptation to imagine that we have exhausted the meaning of Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: I have observed this temptation among people who know next to nothing
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  SPEAKER_00: about Scripture and among biblical scholars.
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  SPEAKER_00: It seems to have no particular relation to how much one actually knows about the Bible.
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  SPEAKER_00: I remember hearing a fellow say that one time he had been asked about John 3,
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  SPEAKER_00: the new birth by water and the Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: This fellow reported that he had said the passage taught the necessity of baptism, end of story.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I wonder, is that the end of the story?
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  SPEAKER_00: Have we plumbed the depths of John 3 once we determine that it teaches baptism's necessity?
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  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to enter the kingdom of heaven?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is that something we do in this life or does it happen only after death?
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  SPEAKER_00: Is the kingdom of God the same thing that otherwise goes by the name kingdom of heaven?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is the significance of the phrase born from above?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why does Jesus represent conversion as a type of birth?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is the role of the spirit in this new birth?
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  SPEAKER_00: And is it really the case that water in that passage has to do with baptism?
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  SPEAKER_00: Would Jesus have expected Nicodemus to understand that water refers to baptism?
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  SPEAKER_00: Or does water in this passage have anything to do with the water Jesus talks about
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  SPEAKER_00: in the next chapter in conversation with the Samaritan woman?
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  SPEAKER_00: These are questions worth pursuing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not that any of them have easy answers, which is entirely the point.
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  SPEAKER_00: We will never arrive at definitive answers to these questions,
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  SPEAKER_00: and therefore these questions will continuously and necessarily elicit disagreement
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  SPEAKER_00: among interpreters.
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  SPEAKER_00: But, and this is important,
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  SPEAKER_00: Reflecting on such questions,
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  SPEAKER_00: discussing such questions with others,
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  SPEAKER_00: pursuing answers to such questions in the library is one important way to grow in
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  SPEAKER_00: the likeness of Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: You will not achieve a conclusive result, but the process is the point.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's where growth happens.
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  SPEAKER_00: You've got to recognize first that interpretation is a never-ending pursuit.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that you can never reach any conclusive result for any passage.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, conclusive might be too strong.
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  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps definite is better.
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  SPEAKER_00: When you talk to a non-Christian about the way to accept God's offer of grace,
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  SPEAKER_00: telling them to believe, repent,
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  SPEAKER_00: confess, and be baptized is good and distills authentic teaching from Scripture.
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  SPEAKER_00: But that's kindergarten Christianity.
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  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to forget what you learned in kindergarten,
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  SPEAKER_00: your colors and shapes and numbers and letters,
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  SPEAKER_00: but you don't want to stop there either.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like John Robinson,
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  SPEAKER_00: I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth
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  SPEAKER_00: from his holy word.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a book for believers, not for non-believers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every single writing in the Bible was written to communities of the faithful,
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  SPEAKER_00: not those wondering which God to worship,
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  SPEAKER_00: not those uncertain about Jesus' claims,
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  SPEAKER_00: but rather to people who were already in the covenant or had already been baptized.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is room for some nuance to this view,
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  SPEAKER_00: but Because the Old Testament prophets did often address an audience attracted
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  SPEAKER_00: to paganism.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the basic point is, I think, obvious and irrefutable.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is for believers.
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  SPEAKER_00: This fact is worth acknowledging because one common evangelism strategy is to hand out Bibles.
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  SPEAKER_00: As if the Bible were for non-believers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Handing out Bibles is a good work,
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  SPEAKER_00: and God,
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  SPEAKER_00: who wrote Scripture, can,
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  SPEAKER_00: of course,
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  SPEAKER_00: use his written word to create faith in unbelievers,
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  SPEAKER_00: but we also know that the Bible has some difficult passages,
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  SPEAKER_00: and that, as in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, a teacher is often necessary.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is for believers.
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  SPEAKER_00: While it can lead people to faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: its basic design is not for that purpose,
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  SPEAKER_00: but rather to take the faithful deeper into their relationship with God.
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  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of the Bible is not to lead people to baptism.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is for those who have already been baptized,
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  SPEAKER_00: for those already committed to God,
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  SPEAKER_00: to aid in their sanctification, to conform them to Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: Recognizing this idea does not make the hard bits easy,
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  SPEAKER_00: of course, but it does clarify the purpose of the hard bits.
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  SPEAKER_00: Believers are supposed to wrestle with Scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: to struggle with this divine text,
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  SPEAKER_00: all night if necessary, refusing to yield until it offers a blessing.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, a night-long struggle probably will not be long enough.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some passages of Scripture will likely not provide a blessing for years or decades,
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  SPEAKER_00: but still we hold on to them and struggle,
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  SPEAKER_00: knowing that God uses that struggle to mold us into the image of His Son.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our Lord does not throw His pearls before swine.
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  SPEAKER_00: The treasures of Scripture open for those who persist in seeking.
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  SPEAKER_00: We come now to my second suggestion for how to follow Jesus' admonition
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  SPEAKER_00: to take care how we hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: What is it that we need to be hearing?
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  SPEAKER_00: We, who are committed followers of Christ,
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  SPEAKER_00: the same as Peter, Andrew, James, and John, The answer?
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  SPEAKER_00: Instruction in Christian spirituality.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's what we need to hear.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is much to say on this point,
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  SPEAKER_00: both in what I mean by Christian spirituality and in how Scripture can help
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  SPEAKER_00: toward this end, and I won't say it all now.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, there is no urgency.
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  SPEAKER_00: Slow and steady wins the race.
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  SPEAKER_00: The New Testament,
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  SPEAKER_00: Shows us that for Christian missionaries,
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  SPEAKER_00: the initial response to God's offer of salvation was an urgent matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: The apostles and evangelists brooked no delay in baptizing people.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to sanctification, there is no hurry.
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  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that it's okay to defer sanctification.
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  SPEAKER_00: God forbid.
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  SPEAKER_00: We should get on it without delay.
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  SPEAKER_00: But there's no great hurry to finish the process.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sanctification is a lifetime project, the goal being conformity to Christ.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Similarly,
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  SPEAKER_00: coming to an understanding of Scripture for Christian spirituality is not
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  SPEAKER_00: an achievable goal, either in the short term or the long term.
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  SPEAKER_00: Faith seeking understanding is the story of the believer's life.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if I don't tell you all my thoughts on scripture now,
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  SPEAKER_00: well, there's always next time and the time after that, not to mention eternity.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Slow and steady is our motto.
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  SPEAKER_00: When you approach any text of Scripture,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether Matthew's Gospel or Leviticus or Romans or Ezekiel,
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  SPEAKER_00: recognize that God has given you this text to help you conform to the image
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: of Christ.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't find that the text is helping you in this endeavor,
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: the fault might lie in a number of areas, but it certainly does not lie with God.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: We remember the words of the Apostle that all Scripture is profitable for training
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: in righteousness.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise,
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Eugene Peterson,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: quote, The Christian scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Christian spirituality is in its entirety rooted in and shaped by the scriptural text.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: We don't form our personal spiritual lives out of a random assemblage
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: We are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: God does not put us in charge of forming our own personal spiritualities.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit."
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we take Scripture so seriously.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't, of course, worship the Bible.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we recognize that Scripture is one of the primary tools God uses
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: to accomplish His purposes in this world.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Those purposes chiefly involve drawing all people to Himself.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: If we recognize how far we are from God...
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: We can only long for God to use Scripture to draw us ever nearer.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: I still want to talk about strategies for approaching Scripture,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: the subject matter of Scripture,
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: how God communicates with us through Scripture,
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: and how God uses other resources,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: including Christian tradition and academic biblical scholarship.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: To guide our biblical interpretation, to constrain it toward faithfulness.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: But for now, let me remind you of Luke 24, the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the middle decades of the first century,
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: no doubt Cleopas and his traveling companion told their story over and again.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Every Christian assembly they visited greeted them with the same requests.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about the mysterious stranger and your conversation.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us about how you came to recognize him.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like when he disappeared?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Which scriptures did he mention in his exposition?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: How did he interpret them?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so Cleopas told his story again.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when one of Paul's missionary friends decided to begin research on the life
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: of Jesus, many people told him, you've got to talk to Cleopas.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: In his interview,
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Luke no doubt asked the question,
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like to have the risen Lord explain the scriptures to you?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Luke wrote down Cleopas' response.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road,
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: while he was opening the scriptures to us?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: We Christian readers of the 21st century seek the same encounter with the Lord
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: through the text of scripture.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we can experience the same wonderful heartburn as God reveals himself to us
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: through our study and meditation.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus admonishes us to take care how you hear.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we follow this encouragement when we hear Scripture with the goal
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: of sanctification,
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: assured that Scripture,
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: or rather God through Scripture, will do something to us, will conform us to Christ.