UNSTUCK!
He said that people that read their Bibles are often people with behavior similar to the world. As he studied people in churches that were truly transformed spiritually, hearing from God, actively obeying and living life differently than the world's values, there was one defining practice that separated them from other people. The defining practice that gave them a distinctive life as a Christian was the practice of "reflection" on their Bible reading. People in churches that read their Bibles three times a week or less and spent little time on Bible "reflection", their lives showed no obvious distinction from that of non-Christian people. But people that read their Bible four times a week or more, and spend time "reflecting" on their Bible reading, thinking and praying over it's implications for their lives, they were the distinctively "Christian" followers of Christ whose behavior was distinctive from people outside the church. As the King James Version would say, people that read their Bible four times a week and reflected on their reading were "a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9). As Psalm 1 tells us, blessed is the man that delights in God's law and "meditates" day and night on it. The Hebrew word for "meditate" is the same Hebrew word used in Psalm 2 for the word "plot". Mediation is reflection, praying and considering the implication of God's truth. When we meditate, God's presence become more real, his truth seeps into our souls and his truth grounds us in gospel reality like a "tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season" (Ps 1:3). Mediation on grace, meditation on truth, meditation on the gospel, is one of the practices that helps us live a life centered on Jesus Christ. I encourage you to check out this book "UNSTUCK" to learn more about Dr. Coles findings about Scripture reflection, as you seek to know the God of the Gospel.
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