All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Since leaving the full-time workplace this past August, one of the benefits I have enjoyed most is having more time in the mornings to dedicate to prayer and Bible study. I can tell that this dedicated time has brought me closer in fellowship with God and has positively impacted my ability to serve, like writing these devotions and creating Bible lessons to go with our children’s musical program practices.

The more I study God’s Word and prepare to share it with others, the more I’ve come to understand that as a young person I was “well churched” but not necessarily “well versed”. My family went to church two to three times a week. We went to revivals, and I attended church camps in the summer. I heard a lot of Bible stories, and I attended many classes where adult leaders told me what the Bible said.

In most of the churches I attended growing up, I was rarely asked to actually read the Bible myself. When I was asked, I read it that day in class or heard it read in the King James Version, which is challenging at times even as an adult to understand, and no one ever asked me what the words meant or asked me to study on my own what God was telling me through His Word . My friends and I read some verses, adults told us what they said or why they were important, and we moved on with life until the next Wednesday or Sunday.

Today, as an educator and literacy expert, I know that I did not receive a very effective spiritual education as a young person. I’m sure the adults in my life had the best intentions. Maybe they thought that we couldn’t digest the Bible on our own as children and young adults. I’m certain they thought that they were helping us understand by telling us what the Bible said or what it meant in their own words. But, I just remember thinking that the adults had one belief or one way of thinking and that the world had a bunch of other ways and I was never quite sure who was right.

By not asking me to read a version of the Bible that I could actually decode and comprehend as a child or young person and not asking me to study the words and phrases in their original language or to pray them back to God for direction, the well meaning adults in my life unknowingly put stumbling blocks in my path. Many of their instructional methods prevented me from discovering God’s truths as HIS truths, not their truths. Though I gave my heart to Jesus at a young age, I spent many years with an under-developed understanding of the purpose of the Bible and lack of appreciation for how it contained the Godly solution to every situation I might face. Leaning on my own understanding over the years caused its share of heartache as you can imagine.

Dear heart, I don’t pretend to know all of God’s plans or to understand all of His Word, but I know without a doubt that the path God has set my feet on spiritually and professionally has allowed Him to use the shortcomings and challenges of my spiritual upbringing to help me understand that we cannot keep raising generations of Christians who do not read and study the Bible for themselves. We cannot keep insisting that only one version of the Bible be used when everything God has allowed me to learn about our reading abilities as humans demonstrates that the phrasing of some versions is too archaic and the words too multisyllabic for the majority of our children, and many adults, to read and comprehend without significant literacy support or scaffolds – not to mention the fact that the English language lacks the vocabulary to fully grasp the original Hebrew or Greek meanings of many words and phrases.

As we have learned throughout history, when literacy is stifled, people often suffer under the will or oppression of whoever interprets the written word for them.

Beloved, the enemy knows the Bible too and he can twist it and turn it around and interpret it to abuse and confuse those who do not read it, or cannot read it well, or do not discuss their understanding of it with God.

When young people or adults do not or cannot access the Bible themselves, we hear them say, “My parents, pastors, Sunday school teachers say” instead of “God’s Word says” and then, when they are faced with a dilemma, the world sneaks in with “You know your parents, pastors, teachers are just people. They might have it wrong.”, and suddenly we’ve opened people to confusion and lies because they do not have a clear understanding of what God’s Word says or how they can apply it to their lives.

You know, I wasn’t sure what shape this devotion would take when I started writing, but I think it has served to get what God has been telling me about His purpose and my role in ministry down all in one place: No one is too young, physically or spiritually, to dig into the Bible, and a closeness with God is delayed when we tell, tell, tell people about God and never lead them to know God through the primary means He gives us to know Him, His Word.

However, we must also make sure people can access God’s Word by matching their reading ability to a sound version of the Bible written on a level they can decode and comprehend. We must teach them vocabulary to help them access God’s Word, including the meanings of the original Hebrew and Greek when needed. We must encourage them to engage with God’s Word through our testimony and help them apply what they learn from studying the Bible to their own lives. Simply being told how to live like Christ brings a shallow understanding and sets a weak foundation. Reading and studying God’s Word and talking to God about what He says brings a much deeper understanding and builds an immensely stronger foundation.

How are you engaging with God through His Word?

In what ways could you help others draw closer to God through His Word?