Experiencing God's Spoken Words
Four ways that emphasize changes in our beliefs
- Emphatic Reading
- After you read any passage, close your eyes and put yourself in the scene. How might those in this passage feel and think? What do you see, hear, smell, taste, touch? Visualize the people in the scene. Where do you find yourself among them? What are you feeling? Doing? Saying? Record your thoughts in a journal.
- Four Questions
- What does this passage have to say about my intimacy with God?
- Who is God and who am I in relation to Him?
- In what ways am I being drawn to Him? Is there anything I don’t like?
- What does this passage say about the deep issues of my heart?
- What about my brokenness and pain, jealousies, joys, etc.?
- Are there dreams that are challenged, encouraged? What fears are being addressed? Is there a difficult decision this helps me with?
- What does this passage have to say about my relationship with others?
- How can and should I relate to family, friends, believers, non-believers, nature, animals, etc.?
- As I reflect on my relationships, is there unfinished business: pain, hurt, anger, fear, numbness, resistance to even looking at those relationships, peace, gratefulness, joy?
- What relationships am I most drawn to? Which ones am I resisting or ignoring?
- What does this passage tell us about how God views reality?
- What is God’s view of the world and beyond?
- What do you sense surfacing inside you as you reflect on this? Are you motivated? Is there some resistance inside you
- What does this passage have to say about my intimacy with God?
- Images & Identity
- As you read, ask yourself these two questions:
- What image of God is being painted?
- What does this picture show about my own identity
- As you read, ask yourself these two questions:
- Visual Reflection of Biblical Stories
- Find and reflect on a visual representation of a Biblical story (like Rembrandt’s painting of the prodigal son.). Where or who would you be in each representation?
