Experiencing Chocolate: How to Make the Bible Come Alive

If all you ever did was look at the chocolates, admire the chocolates, smell the chocolates, and sort them into categories of chocolate, you would have knowledge and awareness of chocolate, but you would lack experience. To experience chocolate you have to eat it.

When I talk about experiencing the Bible, I mean two things: making the Bible text come alive and living it.

You can, and should, study the Bible to understand the facts about the people, places, and situations, but to stop here is to come short of experiencing it.

There is a huge difference between knowledge and experience. When the Bible comes alive in your heart and mind, it changes you. Experience isn’t knowledge, though it starts with knowledge.

Story is the most powerful form of communication because it touches us deeper than the cognitive awareness of facts. Stories convey experience, emotion, and moral. No wonder the majority of the Bible is narrative.

Writing or simply imagining Bible stories is one of the ways I meditate on the Bible. It’s a way for me to look at the story from different perspectives, sometimes from the perspective of a different character. It allows me to see how I would feel if I were in the situation. When you put yourself in the text, it comes alive. It’s no longer dry, boring history. It remarkably resembles the drama of your own life.

Experiencing the Bible also means living it. After all, you can read about something and know all about it, but you won’t experience it until you actually do it. Many Christians know the Bible, but they don’t do the things they know to be true. Sure, the truth resonates in their heart—it sounds good—but they have not experienced the truth.

Loving your enemies sounds good until you have to choose to demonstrate kindness to someone who undermines your authority at work and tries to turn other employees against you. When you have loved this person, you have experienced the Bible.

So let’s get into some practical ways we can meditate on God’s Word without doing anything scary or uncomfortable. You’ll find that biblical meditation is more fun and freeing than your preconceived ideas allow, so set them aside. Let’s explore and play.