It’s a beautiful Sunday in Arizona. The sky is blue and the weather is warm (some still call it “HOT!!”). I’m sitting at my desk for the first time in a while, with something on my hear to share with you.
I’ve been working on a secret project for the last month or so. It’s hit a point where the demands on my time are low. I’m enjoying that. But it’s allowed me to reflect on life a little bit. And one thought keeps coming up.
What am I really fighting against?
I do feel like I’m in a fight. Not with people like with fists. But certainly a spiritual battle. I see it all around me and some times it wears me out.
It makes me really sad, because there are casualties of even this kind of battle. And I’m afraid so many of them will be sitting in church pews later today.
I’m talking about apathy toward the Bible. I think it’s a great enemy of the faith. People who look at their Bible and just shrug. Who aren’t curious what it says. Who don’t think they can read it and make a difference. Who don’t think it matters in their day-in-day-out life.
Walking spiritual zombies, if you ask me.
Empty husks of Christians who are going through the motions, but like the church in Ephesus, the condemnation is “you left your first love.”
I see this especially in men. When you look at all the things they want to like, the Bible seems very far away. A book of ancient peoples has a hard time competing with football, video games or golf. And that’s just a short list of the trade offs that men have to make.
A long time ago, this is what catapulted me into writing books. I was leading a Men’s Group at church. And when I looked around the circle of men, I could see the conflict behind their eyes.
“Is this really going to make any difference in my life?”
“When I read the Bible I just fall asleep, or daydream, or….”
“I read, but I have no idea what’s going on. I hate feeling like that.”
Yep. Apathy at its finest. Fueled by a lack of knowledge or of technique.
So I devised a simple study method (Not the Six Easy Steps method) for men to read the Bible and have it become relevant, even interesting.
It was interesting to watch what happened when men leaned into this method.
Firstly it was easy, and they were able to pick it up quickly (that’s key to building the first success).
Second it was dynamic and interesting. Never the same thing twice. Probably different every time the Bible opened. And in a room of 15 men, each man was able to have his own reaction and that was just fine. So it was diverse.
Third, it pointed directly at real heart issues that the men needed to address. In their own words, not in fancy Bible scholar words. It helped these men come to grips with the things in their life that they otherwise didn’t know how to put words to.
The first book I ever wrote was about how to lead this study. Later I came back and distilled the study (and the teaching) into a 30 day devotional.
If you’re on my mailing list, you probably don’t struggle with Biblical apathy. But I’ll bet you know men who do. Men who can’t seem to get out of neutral and engage in their spiritual life.
This is a tool for you to reach out to them. The book is short (men like that). It’s friendly. It’s an easy read and easy to implement.
And if a man puts any effort into this at all, it could light him on fire for God. It could give him the spark that gets the juices flowing and snaps him out of spiritual zombie-hood.
I called the book “Devotions: Men in the Bible”. That’s a functional, descriptive name. But not very sexy. Perhaps I should have called it “How to radically change your life by reading Bible stories” or “How to feel something real when you read the Bible”.
It’s too late to change the name now. But if you have a man that you want to “wake up” spiritually, this is an invaluable tool.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1983693057
In the words of one Amazon reviewer, “Experience what the Spirit will do in your life. It’ll change, that’s certain. Go! And then tell the men in your life you truly care about the do this boot camp. They will thank you.”
Until next time.
Dennis
