I’ve adapted this excerpt from my soon to be released book that will help believers move beyond borrowed beliefs to a faith they can call their own. This is from a chapter on Three Core Beliefs for Understanding the Bible.

I’ll be sharing from the book on Saturdays now through the book’s release. It just moved into the professional production phase. I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Imagine you get home from the store, grab the mail and start thumbing through it. Direct mail marketing goes right into the garbage. The bills go into another pile. But then one catches your eye. It’s a legal notice from a well-known law firm.

You open it, and as you scan it, you realize you’re being sued and summoned to court. What’s your gut response? What starts going through your mind and, more importantly, what do you feel right now?

Perhaps you sense a physiological change deep inside, like your heart sinking or blood pressure rising. You realize you’ve been holding your breath and start to let it out. You also notice your palms and brow feel sweaty.

Your heart rate’s up, questions are flooding your mind, and you know you need to pray but feel kind of numb right now.

And those feelings are taking over.

You sit down staring at the letter—anxious, confused, intimidated and angry. Worry is settling in like an unwelcome guest.

There’s even some righteous indignation, disbelief, denial, reluctance and a good dose of avoidance. It’s all becoming a blur.

Frustrated and overwhelmed, you set the letter down, lose heart and don’t want to pick it up again.

It’s all you can think about now.

You go over each detail in your mind trying to fathom how they can expect this of you. There that piece of mail sits, waiting for you to pick it up and respond.

People experience the Bible this way.

They read parts of the Bible and have these kinds of responses to a greater or lesser degree. But the effect is that they put the Bible down and lose heart or interest. They grow spiritually numb and feel overwhelmed.

Does God expect me to think, say or do this?

Really? I need to what?

What are the consequences if I do this or if I don’t?

This doesn’t make sense.

Who could possibly do this?

I’m not going to do this.

And what will others think?

Anxious, confused, intimidated, discouraged and maybe even a little angry, defiant or guilty, they put their Bible down and avoid it. But there it sits, waiting for a response.

Now imagine someone walking in, picking up that piece of mail and saying, “What’s this?”

You look up, grumble a few words about being sued, and look away. Then they say, “Who’s Joe Smith?”

Startled, you look up and say, “Who’s Joe Smith? I don’t know a Joe Smith!” Then you look at the letter and realize it wasn’t addressed to you. You got someone else’s mail.

Now what happens?

What changes about what you think, feel, say and do? No doubt you’re relieved. Things are starting to make sense, your feelings have improved and that pit in your stomach is gone.

You pick up that mail, and it no longer reads the same. It sits differently with you now, right?

With relief you can say, “It’s not for me. It’s for them!” You’ve learned some things about Joe Smith that might be helpful, but you’re under no obligation to act upon his mail.

And now you can read it all you want, but the baggage is gone. You might even be glad that you’re not Joe Smith.

Here’s why it’s important that you know whose mail you’re reading when you open the Bible. Not everything in Scripture is written directly to you.

It’s all profitable.

You should read all of it, enjoy it, learn from it, wrestle with it, examine it and consider what it says.

But you must also know that while all Scripture is profitable for you, it’s not all written directly to you.

You need to know how to answer the question “Whose mail is it?” so that you can make sense of the Bible.

Reading the Bible does not obligate you to everything it says, but it does inform you about everyone and everything it addresses.

In this book you’re going to learn how to determine whose mail you’re reading before you act upon it.

And when you do, you’ll never read the Bible the same or get upset over someone else’s mail.

These short excerpts are just a sample of the book’s content. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Reply and let me know. I read every one.

🙏Would you pray with me that my soon to be released book and live companion cohort help believers move beyond borrowed beliefs to a faith they can call their own and build a meaningful routine with God’s word they can look forward to?

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Steve is married to Lorie and together have four grown children and three grandchildren. Now in their forty-fourth year together you’ll find them busy with family, church, ministry or taking a walk around the neighborhood.

Retired from pastoral ministry Steve authored his first book that will help those who quietly struggle because they don’t get more from their personal Bible reading.

His mission is to help as many believers as he can fall in love with God’s word and have a faith they can truly call their own.

He also teaches the live online cohort that is companion to his book, teaches in the Bible Institute at his local church and writes this bi-weekly newsletter.

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