If you want to get depressed, go look up the "Flat Bible Believers" Facebook page. Its very existence helps to demonstrate that people read the Bible every which way they can, and every which way that makes them happy and that plays into their personal agendas. For those who crave that kind of thing, it lies like a benthic flatfish on the seafloor waiting for unsuspecting prey to float by. 

Flat

I don't believe in a flat Bible or in reading the Bible from a flat perspective.  By "flat" I do not mean a "flat earth" perspective; I mean just a flaaaaat perspective, where all verses are available on an equal basis, as if in a hube storage bin, just waiting to get grabbed for anybody's purpose; or where a reader adopts only one narrow approach and refuses to consider anything more.  Sadly, this is how many people still read the Bible.  Even that reader who blurts out the protest, "I don't want the details; I just want to know what the Bible means for me now!"  That plays right into this mentality, because what it really means is,

"I don't wanna mess with all that detail stuff,
I just want to tell you what's right and wrong about it."  

The point is not that all Bible readers need to be scholars.  I repeat:  That is NOT the point! But why is it that some of us act like we have to choose between being a heartless, ivory tower scholar or being a "what feels good to me" brain-dead reader?  Looks to me like if we are even a little bit serious about the Bible we'd want to be responsible with it. 

3-D

All of that flat Bible stuff is a waste of time. Like anything important in life, we need a 3-D approach, and that's what I've been showing in this series of posts.   Up to this point, I've covered three vital considerations when reading the Bible, all of which must be taken seriously:     

Reading the Bible is not like reading a romance novel, or a murder mystery, or a book of poetry. It has all of that, but it's much more than that. The Bible cries out to be read carefully and contextually. But the three things that dominate are Text, Spirit, and Self. That forms our repertoire of reading agendas.

Repertoire

The online Oxford Dictionary, Lexico, defines the word repertoire like this:  A stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform.  When it comes to dancing with the Bible, an array of disciplines (methods) in two categories is available, depending on the text and specific need.

This is not a checklist of things you must do each time you read the Bible.  Hardly.  This is, rather, what is available to you as a reader. Energetic Bible readers will never be satisfied with one-sided readings of the Bible.  And they will know how to choose the right tool for the right occasion of reading.   

A Reminder

1. Methods are not Spirit-led, people are.  
2. Disciplines help us read biblical texts responsibly to feed our own souls—and the souls of others. 
3. Text is for the sake of people, not people for the sake of text. 

As a further reminder, following is my plan for this blog topic:   

Part 1: I introduced "Power-Reading the Bible" as a path to responsible, contextual, and conversational Biblical text study. 

Part 2: I'll talk about creating three things to facilitate Power-Reading: a Mindset, an Expectation, and a Space.  It will take several weeks to roll this out.

Part 3: PROBE.  I'll talk about what this is, why it is important, and how it can help everyone everywhere with how they read the Bible and put it into practice.  

Part 4:  1Thessalonians.  Here I plan to study a specific NT text using all the principles I've laid out in this macro blog series. So, I'll turn to what is possibly Paul’s earliest letter: 1Thessalonians.  What I plan to do is to generate some conversations with Paul about faith, love, & hope.  I plan to follow this path:

1. Basics about the letter (including a new translation) —Intro 
2. Embracing Hope ----Intro 2
3. The Path: From Prayer to Power ----1:1-10
4. The Christ Message ----2:1-4
5. Dealing with Conflict ----2:5-16
6. Finding Direction ----2:17-20; 3:1-8
7. Praying with Elation ----3:9-13
8. Walking the Talk ----4:1-8
9. The Quiet Life ----4:9-12
10. Meeting the LORD ----4:13-18
11. Facing the Day ----5:1-11
12. Standing with Power ----5:12-28
13. Shared Existence
14. Unrelenting Faith

I don’t know how long I’ll spend on this part—likely more than 14 weeks. It won’t surprise me if this entire study takes all year. And it is likely that my plans will change along the way.  I won’t be worried about any of that. My concern is to model what could be when we read biblical texts.

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Click Here for the whole blog series:  Power-Reading the Bible 
 

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