And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. (Mark 6:31, ESV)

Hello Friends!

First, thank you for subscribing to my blog! I love to write, and I am honestly a little surprised that people read my musings! But it’s a joy, and I appreciate your engagement with my content.

Second, I have been a little behind. In August, I started doctoral studies at Moody Theological Seminary, and it’s been somewhat challenging to keep up with everything! Even blogging every other week has proved difficult. I will keep plugging away, however; better late than never!

In the mid-1700s, pastor and missionary John Wesley began teaching people to gather in small groups for prayer, Scripture, and mutual encouragement in discipleship. Each time they came together, their first question was, “How is it with your soul?”1

What a fantastic question!

My soul is tired. Recently, the Lord has been convicting me that my spiritual practices are imbalanced. I have many striving spiritual disciplines: Bible reading, intercessory prayer, participating in church gatherings, journaling, learning, and serving. But I don’t have many resting practices. This is due in part to a busy season of life (I did just start a doctoral program). But, if I’m honest, that’s an excuse. My personality is to get things done. I like action steps, checklists, and work. I am not naturally wired to rest, wait, quiet my mind, or contemplate.

But spiritual formation requires both striving and resting. Yes, there is work to do. But we also must receive. Jesus called his disciples to a “desolate place” so they could rest. How is it with my soul? I need a desolate place. God is good. Life is abundant. And… you and I are still human. There is always more work to finish. The to-do list is never completed. We simply cannot do it all.

I will try to keep up with my biweekly blogs. But I may miss a week. And that’s okay. You will keep reading through your Bible reading plan. But you may miss a day. And that’s okay. Sometimes the spiritual discipline we need most is a nap!

As one of my good friends said to me a few years ago, “Remember, God made you a human being, not a human doing.”

How is it with your soul?

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” (Psalm 119:15, ESV)

The Bible is a big book. It’s an old book. It can be intimidating to pick up. Depending on what translation you’re using, it can feel clunky to read. Many people try, get lost or bored, and give up.

But before you throw in the towel, remember the old riddle: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Sure, it’s massive. But that doesn’t really matter. You can only eat one bite at a time, whether it’s an elephant or an apple.

So, break the Bible into bite-sized bits. Here’s a simple, repeatable method for reading Scripture. It can be as short as 10-15 minutes, or as long as an hour (or longer). It’s suitable for beginners and grows with you. It’s the method I use most often when I read my Bible. It involves four simple steps.

1. Read

2. Meditate

3. Pray

4. Contemplate

Before you start, select a passage. I recommend starting with something from Psalms or one of the Gospels. Choose a shorter section. You can read multiple chapters, but if you’re just starting to build a rhythm for Bible reading, I recommend choosing just a few verses. Most Bibles are divided into sections. Pick one of those. And pray. Take a moment to quiet your heart and mind.

Step 1 — Read the passage. Read it slowly. Read it two or three times (that’s why I suggested starting with a shorter passage). Note anything that catches your attention. It could be a question you have. It could be something new you learn. Something in the text might stand out or spark a thought.

Step 2 — Meditate. Read the passage again, considering what it means and giving weight and attention to what stood out in step 1. In the Bible, “meditate” means “chew” or “mutter.” Chew on the text (no, not literally). For example, in Psalm 119:15, think about God’s “precepts” and his “ways.” What are they? One thing that comes to my mind is the Great Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself (see Mark 12:30-31). Allow yourself to be drawn into that passage. How can you, specifically and personally, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? How can you love your neighbor? Make a list of ways. Who is your neighbor? Think of one name or face. How could you love that person? Back to Psalm 119, what does it mean to fix your eyes on God’s ways? Why eyes? We love what we look at most, and we look at what we most love. Where do you fix your eyes?

You get the idea.

Step 3 — Pray. Talk to God about what you’re reading. Talk to God about what’s stirring up in your mind as you meditate. Go back through the passage again, talking to God as you go. Maybe something new will strike you. Don’t rush. Tell God what you’re thinking about, even if it seems unrelated.

Step 4 — Contemplate. How are meditation and contemplation different? Christian spiritual leaders throughout history have different views, but one of the simplest ways to distinguish them is by how active they are. Meditation is active; contemplation is restful. Meditation focuses on words and intellect; contemplation focuses on affections and imagination. When you contemplate, you rest in God’s presence. I close my eyes and imagine what it would look like for me to live out what I just read, meditated, and prayed. I picture myself praying for my neighbor. I remember singing and worshiping God last Sunday, when the congregation sang louder than the band. I visualize it in my imagination. Often, I feel God’s presence and joy.

After a time of contemplation, I close with a brief prayer. I speak to God about anything I’ve resolved to do, like praying for my neighbor. Typically, I’ll record a brief journal entry. It’s a great way to slow down and read the Bible with God.

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” (Psalm 119:15, ESV)

As a pastor, I am often asked how to start reading the Bible. My answer varies depending on who’s asking, but a few principles are important no matter who you are.

The Bible is not meant to be read once. We often read books that way—from beginning to end, then set them aside on a shelf, return them to the library, or take them to the used bookstore. But the Bible is, in many ways, a unique book. It was designed by God to be read over and over, meditated on, studied, discussed, prayed, and applied. We never finish the Bible!

For those new to faith, I don’t recommend reading the Bible straight through as a starting point. Instead, start with the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then read through Psalms and Proverbs. Then read Acts. Then read through the whole New Testament (yes, you’ll re-read the Gospels and Acts). At this point, I’d recommend re-reading Psalms and Proverbs, then do a deep dive and read through the whole Bible. There are some great reading plans to guide you through this.

By the way, these initial reading steps will likely take you two or three years (yes, years) to work through. That’s okay! Part of learning to follow Jesus is learning to make Bible reading a regular rhythm of life… for the rest of your life! We are people of the book.

It’s also important to remember that the Bible is not written in chronological order. You don’t have to read it straight through to understand what it’s saying. For instance, Paul’s letters in the New Testament are arranged from longest to shortest, not in the order he wrote them. So it’s okay to jump around. At some point, you should read it from Genesis to Revelation, but you don’t have to start there.

A third essential principle is that the Bible is not meant to be read in isolation. By its very nature, it is a communal book. I certainly recommend reading the Bible and praying on your own. Daily Scripture and prayer are fundamental to a vital Christian life. But don’t try to do it only by yourself. I find that I am far more motivated in my personal Bible reading when I am also reading it with others. The Christian spiritual life is meant to be walked out together.

Trying to keep these posts under 500 words, so I’ll pause for now. We’ll pick this up in a future post. In the meantime, open your Bible and read something, even if it’s just a verse or two! I’ve been reading through Jeremiah. What are you reading these days?

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21, ESV)

I’ve been reading On the Incarnation by Saint Athanasius. At one point, he writes, “He [God] deals with them [people] as a good teacher with his pupils, coming down to their level and using simple means.”1 I have always appreciated the teacher, trainer, boss, coach, or pastor who could take a complex idea and break it down into simple terms. Someone recently told me the best way to test how well you understand something is to explain it to a middle school student. She was right!

God knew we would never come to know him through our own means. A lost man cannot find his way back home—that’s what makes him lost. If he knew the way home but refused to take it, he wouldn’t be lost. He’d just be wandering away from home.

We were hopelessly lost, separated from God like children who ran away from their parents in a crowded amusement park and now cannot find Mom or Dad. So, the Son of God came for us. He became human, like one of us, so that we could see and understand. He came down to our level, spoke in terms we could comprehend, and showed us by his life, death, and resurrection what God is like. At the cross, we find the path home.

I’ve watched when my three-year-old loses sight of me and becomes aware that she’s lost. She looks, but even though I can see her, she can’t find me, and starts to get scared. When I go get her, she’ll say, “Daddy! I found you!” In that moment, I don’t correct her. I just wrap her in a big hug and say, “I’m so glad!”

“since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” — 1 Peter 1:23 (ESV)

Have you ever thought about the usefulness of a butter knife? It’s such a versatile piece of tableware! Butter knives can be used to spread toppings (like butter on bread or icing on cupcakes), trim the crust off toast, cut open baked potatoes, and chop spaghetti noodles into toddler-sized bites. When the lid on a jar is stuck, I often grab a butter knife and tap it on the lid (I don’t know if it actually works, but I can usually get the lid off). We’ve even used a butter knife in a pinch as a screwdriver.

The way you use a butter knife depends on what you’re using the butter knife for. The same is true for God’s Word.

In his book, Mere Christian Hermeneutics, Kevin Vanhoozer describes two purposes for reading Scripture that have often been in tension throughout Christian history. On one side is what we might call the academic approach to the Bible. This side views Scripture as a historical and religious book to be scientifically studied. Faithful academic biblical scholars believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and they seek to understand what God said centuries and millennia ago and what it meant then. The purpose is to mine the Bible for ancient theological principles that can be applied to life today.

On the other side is what we could call the pastoral approach to the Bible. This side views the Scripture as a historical and religious book to be spiritually read. They believe that the Bible is God’s inspired Word and seek to hear what God is saying through Scripture to those who are reading it today. The purpose is to meditate on Scripture to encounter God for worship and spiritual formation.

Sadly, these two camps frequently take shots at each other. Academics in universities often accuse pastors and Bible study leaders of taking the Bible out of context. Church leaders often accuse academics of ignoring the application of Scripture, choosing instead to mire themselves in endless historical debates that have little relevance to actual life (e.g., whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons).

I agree with Vanhoozer and others that we need both sides to come back together in order to have a full and correct understanding of Scripture. We must study the Bible properly to understand what it meant. And we must listen to the Spirit as we read to understand what it means. The Bible is not merely an encyclopedia, a classroom textbook, or a dataset to train an AI bot. Neither is it a genie in a lamp, waiting to be opened to do my personal bidding. It is the living and active Word of God. He spoke it then, and he is speaking through it now. We should read the Bible to hear what God said and what God is saying. Let us come to the Scriptures so that we can encounter the Speaker and be transformed. We do not have a dead book. We have “the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). Both what it meant and what it means are important for spiritual formation and for loving God.

Why do you read the Bible?

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. —1 Corinthians 1:26

When I lived in Wisconsin, I fell in love with fly fishing for trout. But when I started, I quickly discovered a problem. Fly fishing is complicated. There are hundreds of fly rods, ranging in price from $20 to $2,000. The same is true for fly reels. There are also waders, boots, fishing vests, nets, and dozens of various accessories. You need fly line, and there are so many lengths, weights, bouyancies, and specialized lines to choose from. You need leaders of various lengths, from 5 feet to 15 feet, and tippet. And don’t get me started on the files! Thousands of fly patterns in a dizzying array of colors and sizes!

The more I learned about fly fishing, the more discouraged I became. How do I know what leader length to use? How do I know when to tie on more tippet? How do I know what fly line I need, and how can I afford all these specialized pieces of gear? How do I know what fly to choose? What if I have the right pattern but the wrong size? What if I’m not casting perfectly? I realized that the only way I would learn to fly fish was to invest a ton of money in gear and go to the Orvis store and sign up for their fly fishing school. It was just too complicated for an average untrained person.

Then a friend introduced me to Tenkara fly fishing. Tenkara is much simpler. There’s no reel. An inexpensive fixed-length fly line is attached to the end of the rod with a very simple knot that only takes a few seconds to tie. There are no leaders of various sizes, just a few feet of tippet connecting the fly to the line. Tenkara fly fishing is minimalist fly fishing. Less gear means less to buy, less to carry, and less to fuss with. It’s a different philosophy of fishing. Instead of trying to pick a fly pattern that is a perfect imitation of the bugs the fish happen to be eating that day, the Tenkara approach is less complicated. Choose a fly that could pass for any number of bugs—trout are opportunistic feeders. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars buying every fly you can find. Many Tenkara anglers have two or three fly patterns they use, and that’s it.

I embraced Tenkara fly fishing, saved a lot of money by not buying unnecessary gear, and caught more fish!

Sometimes, we think of making disciples like fly fishing. It’s complicated. You have to be an expert. You probably need professional training. You need to know how to teach a Bible study, come up with critical thinking questions, facilitate a discussion with a classroom-sized “small” group, run a church program, and hold your own in an apologetics debate. Plus, you need to be a lot more like Jesus. If you’re still dealing with areas of sin in your own life, how could you disciple someone else?

But we need to think of making disciples like Tenkara fly fishing. Let’s uncomplicate it. 1 Corinthians 1:26 tells us that most of the original Christians were not wise or well educated. They were not rich and powerful. They were not people of status or position in society. Most of the first Christians were average, everyday, normal people. They didn’t have church buildings. They didn’t have church programs. They didn’t have church conferences. They didn’t have podcasts, YouTube, Claude AI, or GotQuestions.org. They didn’t even have the complete New Testament. And while some congregations had copies of parts of the Old Testament, virtually no individual owned their own Scriptures. Yet, somehow, they made disciples.

The point I’m trying to make is this: Discipleship is not complicated. It’s really very simple. At its core, making a disciple means showing someone else how you follow Jesus. How do you follow Jesus? I’m not asking that in the broad, generic sense of how does a person follow Jesus, but rather in the specific, personal sense of how you follow him. Have you ever sat down and written out the ways you follow Christ? If not, take a few minutes this week to do just that.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that, I could go on a nice vacation! I’m not sure that 24/7 news outlets are a good thing for the world. A few years ago, I had a moment in which I realized I was overstressed, overstimulated, anxious, and always angry. I decided to take a step back from social media and news. I closed most of my social media accounts and ignored the two I didn’t cancel. And I shut off all my news feeds… for a year.

Admittedly, the first few weeks were tough. I went through something akin to withdrawal. But a few months after kicking news and social media out of my life, my anger level decreased significantly. I was less stressed, sleeping better, and didn’t live in a state of constant worry. I felt more present with my family, more hopeful about life, more aware of my neighbors, and more excited about how God was moving in the church I served as a pastor.

I have never really reengaged with social media beyond following a fishing group’s posts every once in a blue moon. However, I eventually reintroduced the news—carefully. I wanted to find a source that I could trust and one that didn’t only report doom and gloom.

I found WORLD. I could tell you about WORLD news, but I will let the organization speak for itself.

“WORLD produces sound journalism, grounded in facts and biblical truth. Through print magazines, online articles, and podcast programs, our trained journalists report on current events both global and national so that readers and listeners can see how God is at work in the world, no matter the headlines.”

I first discovered WORLD through their daily news podcast, The World and Everything In It. Each episode is about 35–40 minutes long and is as professional in quality as any big network news. Major stories from the US and around the world are reported, along with regular special segments on Supreme Court cases, economics, politics, and culture, all from a biblical worldview. Additionally, the podcast frequently has human-interest stories that are inspiring and stir my heart to praise our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As a parent, one of the most helpful segments is the weekly arts and entertainment review of major movies, shows, and music. If Collin Garbarino, the Arts and Culture Editor, says a movie or show is good, I’ve found it’s almost always worth watching!

The World and Everything In It is a free podcast. And WORLD’s website also has a ton of print stories available free. I listen to WORLD news most mornings. And then I ignore the news for the rest of the day. As for the big networks and subscription-based spinoffs, I’ve found they’re not worth my time—or my money. Where do you get your news?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” —Matthew 28:18

Most people who have been Christians for any length of time have heard these famous words from what we call the Great Commission. Jesus, after his resurrection and just prior to his ascension, commissioned his disciples to go and make more disciples. Since those of us who follow Jesus today are also his disciples, this commission is also ours. But what does it mean?

Hang in there with me. This might get a little nerdy, but it’s worth thinking deeply about this.

When we read this in modern English, we see two verbs: “go” and “make.” And we see two nouns: “disciples” and “nations.” So, it makes sense to understand our commission as a command to go to all the nations and create or make a product—disciples. If I said to you, “Go to the kitchen and make lasagna,” you would understand that I’m telling you to go to a place—the kitchen—and create a product—lasagna (which happens to be my favorite meal).

This way of reading the Great Commission is reinforced by the modern, manufacturing-driven world in which we live. A car is made on an assembly line. A phone is manufactured in a factory. A loaf of bread is baked in an oven. A product is created when it is completed. A friend of mine is currently building a house for his family. I walked through it with him the other day, and there is a lot of work yet to be done. It’s going to be beautiful when it’s finished.

But there’s something interesting about Matthew 28:18 that is a little lost in translation. The original text wasn’t written in English but in Koine Greek. And I was surprised when I read it in Greek to see that the word “disciple” in this verse is not a noun but a verb. A very literal translation reads:

“Going, therefore, disciple all the people groups…”

In the original Greek, there are still two verbs: “going” and “disciple.” And there is only one noun: “people groups.” You might ask why it wasn’t translated this way into English, and the answer is simply a limitation of language. In contemporary English, the word “disciple” is a noun, not a verb. In fact, my grammar checker highlights it as a spelling error every time I use it as a verb. This is why translators naturally render it as “make disciples” even though the Greek verb refers to “discipling.”

This may not seem like much of a difference; however, consider how the verse reads if we use the verbs from the original language. Obviously, we are still called to go. That part doesn’t change. However, the phrase “make a disciple” leads me to think of the end product or destination. The phrase “disciple someone” leads me to think of the path or journey.

The Great Commission is not, “Go and create finished products.” Instead, it is, “Go and lead people on the journey with Christ.” If the commission is to create a finished product, the assignment can never be completed. For all my years serving the Lord, I still have areas of sin in my life. I will never be a “finished product” until Christ returns and completes my sanctification. However, if the commission is to show someone how to really follow Jesus in life, I don’t have to be perfect before I can do that. I don’t have to have all the answers before I begin. Whether you have been following Jesus for decades or days, you can show someone else what you have learned and invite them to follow Jesus with you.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples” is a good translation of ancient Greek into modern English. Just remember that discipleship is about the journey as much as the destination. And making disciples is about teaching people to walk with Jesus, not just creating Bible scholars.