When we read the Bible, what are we doing? Or what is it doing to us? To explain, we are once again joined by author and pastor Ray Ortlund, who serves as the senior pastor of Emanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Ray, explain this to us. What are we doing when we read the Bible?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, what's striking to me about the Bible is just that it exists at all as a book, as this--I'm holding mine in my hand right now--it's this thing external to me, external to my own thoughts and feelings. That is significant. By being external, by being a book outside my head, the Bible provides a unifying rallying point for all Christians, so that we can gather around the Lord Himself in worship, in community, in mission.

If all we had to go by was our own thoughts and feelings, our own intuitions and leadings, we would fragment. If we think we have a lot of disagreements now with the Bible, imagine what would happen, how we would explode apart if all we had was our own personal subjectivity to define the gospel.

So the exteriority of the book pulls us out of ourselves and into something we can all share together. So I think of the Bible as the scepter of the King among His subjects. It's the practical mechanism by which the will of the King exerts influence among us, pulling us together.

It makes the Lordship of Christ a practical reality among us. I mean, think of all the times the prophets cried out, "Hear the word of the Lord." Now that is basically what the Christian life boils down to, listening together. If we're at home alone, we're just sitting there reading and receiving.

Or if we're at church, we're sitting there hearing the Bible preached. And what happens? God Himself enters into that experience. He blesses us, speaks to us, comforts us, corrects us, motivates us through His Word. The Word of God and the power of God always go together. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 says, "Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." What else can do that for us?

What we're doing when we read the Bible is we're opening up, getting out of ourselves, opening up to the power of God, and getting into God's thoughts about God and about everything. And that's when we can come together. Yeah, so the posture of humbling ourselves under Scripture is really essential.

Oh my, yes. We're going to humble ourselves under something. If not the Bible, why something else? How is that alternative qualified? Did that alternative reveal to us the dying love of Jesus for the undeserving? Let's be careful what we listen to. Yeah, excellent. Well said. Thank you, Ray. And tomorrow I want to ask you, in the midst of all the perplexing anxieties and uncertainties of life, what are the keys to regaining and maintaining our joy in Christ?

This has been our friend, pastor and author Ray Ortlunds. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you tomorrow.