How to Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God

Praise for How to Eat Your Bible

Any book that has as its goal to get people to more carefully read, faithfully understand, and joyfully treasure the Word of God is a gift I gratefully commend to the people of God. This message, so greatly needed in our day, cannot be heard too often or often enough.

NANCY DEMOSS WOLGEMUTH

Author, host/teacher of Revive Our Hearts

The spirit of J. C. Ryle pulses through this short yet arresting book. In an age that urges us to be justified by doubt, not by faith, Pickowicz does something unusual: he counsels us to eat the words of God like food. In doing so, he models a deep love for and trust in Scripture. The result is a readable book that is as catalytic as it is instructive. What a gift! We learn here that the Bible is not for super-scholars, or far-out mystical gurus, or shiny-toothed salesmen. The Bible is for me, and in it I will meet God, and by it, I will see Him face-to-face.

OWEN STRACHAN

Author of Reenchanting Humanity: A Theology of Mankind; associate professor of Christian theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

In this book, Nate shares how God enabled him to go from a person who read the Bible from time to time to someone who cannot have enough of this life-transforming book. Yet this is not only a testimony; it is also a brief educational tour in how you too can find yourself delighting in an intellectually stretching and spiritually satisfying daily reading of Scripture. Are you becoming lethargic in your regular intake of God’s Word? Read this practical book and it will propel you to a fresh love for the good old book!

CONRAD MBEWE

Pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia

How to Eat Your Bible is for every Christian. Whether you’re a seasoned theologian, a new believer, a young person struggling with doubts, or a pastor firm in your faith, this book will improve your understanding of and ability to teach Scripture. How to Eat Your Bible shows a world starving for truth how to taste and see that the Lord is good by studying His Word.

ALLIE BETH STUCKEY

Host of Relatable podcast and author of You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay)

So many miss the thrill of knowing God through His Word because they simply don’t know what to do with the Bible. You may read the Bible, but you don’t know how to eat the Bible. Nate Pickowicz sets the table for the hungry soul in How to Eat Your Bible. Simple, practical, and profoundly biblical, this book serves as a menu to guide those hungering for more––more of God, more of Christ, and more of Scripture. Learn how to read, study, and eat more than you ever have. The feast has been prepared, sit down at the table and enjoy!

DUSTIN W. BENGE

Provost, Union School of Theology, Bridgend, Wales

If you struggle with reading your Bible, if you can’t seem to figure out a consistent way to get in God’s Word, let How to Eat Your Bible intensify your hunger for the Scriptures. This short book will help you with both the why and the how of consuming God’s Word, guiding you to the transforming, satisfying, sufficient truth found within the pages of the Book.

ABIGAIL DODDS

Author of (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ

One of the greatest threats facing Christianity is Christians who do not know the Word of God. It is only when we know the unchanging Word of God in a constantly changing world that we will turn the world upside down by the power of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel. This book helps to lay the foundation for knowing God’s Word, loving God’s Word, and being doers of God’s Word as we rest in the power of God’s Word. I am grateful for this clear and accessible book for the church of Jesus Christ.

BURK PARSONS

Senior Pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel and editor of Tabletalk magazine

© 2021 by NATE PICKOWICZ

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Edited by Kevin P. Emmert

Interior Design: Kaylee Lockenour

Cover Design: Darren Welch Design

Cover photo of Bible copyright © 2017 by arKsteer / iStock (891692100).

Cover photo of plate copyright © 2019 by New Africa / Shutterstock (1422010598).

Cover photo of knife and fork copyright © 2019 by nevodka / iStock (112225148).

All rights reserved for all of the above photos.

Author Photo: Carla Howe

All websites and phone numbers listed herein are accurate at the time of publication but may change in the future or cease to exist. The listing of website references and resources does not imply publisher endorsement of the site’s entire contents. Groups and organizations are listed for informational purposes, and listing does not imply publisher endorsement of their activities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pickowicz, Nate, author.

Title: How to eat your Bible : a simple approach to learning and loving the word of God / Nate Pickowicz.

Description: Chicago : Moody Publishers; Los Angeles : The Master’s Seminary Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: How to Eat Your Bible offers an entry point into Scripture that will help you cultivate an appetite for life-long study of God’s Word. Find practical guidance for overcoming the hurdles that have kept you from making Bible study a regular part of your life-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020034632 (print) | LCCN 2020034633 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802420398 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802498960 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible--Appreciation. | Bible--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Classification: LCC BS538 .P53 2020 (print) | LCC BS538 (ebook) | DDC 220.071--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034632

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020034633

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To my children

CONTENTS 

Foreword

Introduction: Setting the Table

1. Starving for the Word

2. Beginning with Prayer

3. Read: What Does It Say?

4. Study: What Does It Mean?

5. Use: How Do I Apply It?

6. Eat Up!

The Seven Year Bible Plan

Acknowledgments

Notes

Friend,

Thank you for choosing to read this Moody Publishers title. It is our hope and prayer that this book will help you to know Jesus Christ more personally and love Him more deeply.

The proceeds from your purchase help pay the tuition of students attending Moody Bible Institute. These students come from around the globe and graduate better equipped to impact our world for Christ.

Other Moody Ministries that may be of interest to you include Moody Radio and Moody Distance Learning. To learn more visit www.moodyradio.org and www.moody.edu/distance-learning.

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Thanks again, and may God bless you.

The Moody Publishers Team

FOREWORD

Like so many good church kids, I grew up hearing about the importance of personal devotions—of a daily time of reading the Bible and praying. But, like so many good church kids, I built the habit carelessly and casually, more to assuage my guilt and mollify my parents than to actually study the Word and to relate to the God of the Word. To be honest, it wasn’t until I had moved out and was married, until I had independence and responsibilities, that I began to know my need for such disciplines and, therefore, until I began to prioritize them in my life. Today I can’t imagine my life (and frankly, don’t wish to imagine my life) without a daily time with the Lord.

Along the way, my experience was similar to Nate Pickowicz’s in that I encountered John MacArthur’s Bible-reading plan—a plan that involves repeated readings of a single book until that book is firmly fixed in the mind and heart. This became very meaningful and very helpful to me. Yet while I found this plan helpful, and a means to read the Bible both deeply and widely, I eventually modified it. After all, just as there are many ways to read the Bible badly, there are many ways to read the Bible fruitfully.

What I so appreciate about How To Eat Your Bible is not only that Pickowicz provides a plan to help you read your Bible consistently and well, but that he provides that plan only after he offers a basic theology of Scripture and Scripture-reading. Long before he offers one man’s method of reading the Bible, he explains the value of following some method of reading the Bible (even if it is not his). Then, for those who are looking for a plan, or eager to try a new one,