Knowing where…
Charles Steinmetz was a retired electrical engineer who had a reputation for knowing his craft, machines. A major manufacturer was having some problem with their electrical equipment and they knew that Charles did contract work from time to time, so they called him up. They asked him to locate their malfunction, even though all their company “experts” could not find where it is. He accepted the challenge.
He walked around listening and feeling many parts and eventually he stopped. He pulled out a piece of chalk and put and “X” on it. The manufacturer’s engineers took their machine apart and sure enough, there it was, a defect in the assembly precisely over the exact spot of Steinmetz mark.
A few days later, an executive at the company received a bill from the engineer for $10,000, “holy cow,” the executive thought, “all he did was put a mark on the machine, he didn’t even fix it…” So, the company protested and asked him to itemize his bill, this was so they might exclude the services that they really didn’t need.
Steinmetz sent back an itemized bill:
(1) Making 1 chalk mark: $1
(2) Knowing where to put the mark: $9,999
We have all been in the situation in life where we need to find the answer (kids, not everyone knows about Wikipedia).
You have a problem, and you’re willing to fix it, you just don’t know what to do.
Here’s the answer… the Bible.
The problem with this answer is, the Bible is not a Ouija board. You don’t simply flip it open and hope by divine providence that you’ll find the answer you need. Imagine if you took all the drugs in your medicine cabinet, poured them into one big mixing bowl and applied the same method. You might cure your headache, or you might make things worse!
You also can’t simply look at the index to find “what job should I take” “where should I live” “which guy do I marry?” You have to spend a long time, years, with the Bible getting to know the topic, just like Charles Steinmetz spent years as an electrical engineer before he had the ability to put “X” on the spot.
The Bible has to become a part of you, not so much that you can point to chapter and verse as proof of what you should do, but so that you can begin to “think biblically” and know the author of the Bible. The more you meditate and put God’s word into you life, the more you will know the way God wants you to go, this takes time, so here’s what you do.
- Read some of the Bible every day – you don’t have to read a lot, if you just do it consistently, it will make a difference.
- Spend time in prayer before and after you read – ask the author of the Bible to give you understanding
- Think about what you read – don’t just check the box “read bible today” think it though, what does it mean, what does it mean to you?
- Change – whatever that day’s passage means for you, change as a result. Start living according to what you read.
- Memorize – take just one verse a week and put it to memory. (O. S. Hawkins has a great devotional book called “The Joshua Code” built on this concept of 52 of the most useful scriptures to memorize, a good place to start)
- Devotional book – also read a good (short) devotional book to get you thinking about the Bible. I recommend “My Utmost for His Highest” “Morning and Evening” “For the Love of God Vol.1” “For the Love of God Vol.2” “The Joshua Code” among others.
What other ideas do you have? What helps you get the Bible into your life to “think biblically?” Comment below!
