Dane Ortlund speaks about the way the Bible has impacted his life—as an unchanging, rock-solid word from heaven.
Transcription
Welcome to UP, the Union Podcast. I’m Dan Hames and I’m speaking to Dane Ortlund. You’re the Senior Vice President for Bible Publishing at Crossway. And I know you’ve been in the Bible Department for quite a few years. This is something that’s important to you, something that you care about. Could you perhaps give us an example of a time where the Bible really impacted you in your personal life?
Hmm. I love that question. I’m thinking about a time where my dad and my mom gave to me, when I was 14, a Bible. And it was a Bible I used for many years. And I say my dad because he’s the one who inscribed the inside, and he wrote: “Dear Dane: Be a lifelong faithful student of the Bible, and your life will be full of blessing. We love you so. Dad, Christmas 1993.” And that is lodged inside me.
In college, I began to feed regularly on the Bible myself, for the first time–actually enjoy the Bible, like the Bible, that was the first time, but the seeds were planted long before by my parents.
Perhaps I could say this, Dan, of all that could be said for the question of why the Bible’s important to me. With the Bible, I have an unchanging, rock-solid word from heaven. So here I am, in my sin and franticness, and I’m all over the place–I’m sinning here, despairing there, up and down, elated, discouraged, but any given day, any time I want, I can open up my ESV single-column Legacy in top grain leather which is sitting right here on the desk next to me and get non-shifting, non-hazy help. The Bible is a rock, it’s not a fog. You think of Jesus’ words about building your house on the rock in Matthew 7. You can hang onto it.
You can take a single sentence: Here’s one that I’ve loved recently, Matthew 11: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Now, that is a concrete sentence with a beginning and a period, an ending. And I can take that, and go my whole day answering emails, going to meetings, being with my family, and I can be sucking on the candy of a clear sentence in the back of my mind. And it makes us sane and calm and helps us.
Thank you, Dane, and thank you for listening. Make sure you tune in for Dane Ortlund one last time on UP, the Union Podcast.
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