In the fall of 2004 when I found the book by Jack Deere "Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit" I came face to face with myself and realized I was just like Jack, a bible deist.  It was the sneakiest distraction.  I thought I was doing God’s work and doing His study but instead I was just kidding myself.  I was more interested in learning about the bible and the teachings of the bible instead of getting to know the PERSON of the bible and the TEACHER Himself.  I worshiped the bible itself more than I worshiped my Father in heaven.  I didn’t do it on purpose, it just happened.

    So the Lord began to deal with me in this area.  Turned out I was worse off than I had imagined!  The Lord told me in the fall of 2005, right before all this change took place that I was searching more for a formula than a relationship.  This was true because I would read other books ABOUT the bible more than I would actually read the bible itself.  It was like I thought that every new book I bought, that maybe, just maybe it would contain the missing piece.  That it might have the words I’ve been missing in my prayer life to cause things to happen.  I would buy book after book searching for an answer not even knowing the question I was asking.

    I ran into a teaching by Dave Roberson about "Meditation by Assimilation" and it just struck a chord with me.  I really benefited from the teaching and it’s really the foundation to how I study the bible.  I personally think it’s the most effective way to draw out life from the scriptures.  I remember before the Lord changed me, it was nearly impossible for my wife and I to have a conversation about the Lord because we couldn’t relate.  I was on such a "higher level" than her (so I thought!) that she couldn’t discuss doctrine and theology accurately and that’s all I wanted to talk about (I was very shallow).  Through this method ,which is challenging enough for the biggest doctrine junky and simple enough for the youngest child in Christ, we became best friends in the Lord.  To the point now where she is my most favorite person to discuss scripture with, and that is saying A LOT!

    Here is the method (I’ll explain the details of why it works afterwards):
Read the Gospels in this order:

Mark
Luke
Matthew
John

    Choose a number and begin to read each gospel that amount of times (I would suggest at the very lowest level 5, but if you can’t do that, you can do 2 or even 1, but it’s best if you do it multiple times.)  If you listen to that “Meditation by Assimilation” series you’ll learn why it is important to read the scriptures multiple times because it is getting planted firmly in your heart and the Lord will use those scriptures to draw out the truths of other scriptures as you read.

    So, choose a number and read.  As you read (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART), put yourself in the stories.  When you read about Jesus healing and doing miracles, put yourself in the disciples position, ask yourself “What would I have done if I would’ve seen that with my own eyes?  How does that make me feel?  How would I respond?”  When Jesus asks people questions, put yourself as the recipient, that He is asking you personally, how would you respond?  Put yourself in different positions in the story. 

    My favorite to use as an illustration is the story of Luke 7:11-18.  It’s when Jesus and His disciples were walking into a town and as they were walking in, a funeral procession was walking out.  This widow was going to bury her dead son, it was her only son.  Jesus approached the funeral procession and touched the casket.  Everybody stopped.  Jesus then said, to the dead son, “Get up.”  And he did!  This guy sat up in His casket, right in front of everybody!!  Verse 16 says “Great fear came over the crowd”.  I bet!

    This is what I did when I first read this story.  I put it in the present.  (There are some people that don’t believe Jesus still wants to raise people from the dead, but that’s another article.)  Imagine a funeral procession driving down the road.  The hearse in front and the long stretch of cars behind it.  They pull up to the cemetery and all the people begin to get out, crying and mourning for their loss.  The young man’s mom steps out of the limo behind the hearse and is escorted behind the casket as the pall bearers take Him to be buried.  At the same time Jesus (as a person of today) walks up to this funeral procession and out of the blue goes to the casket.  Nobody knows Him, it’s probably offensive even!  He puts His hand on the casket, everybody looking in wonderment and probably a little disgust and He looks to the mother and says “Don’t cry.”  He then looks to the casket and says “Young man, get up”.  And as the pall bearers are still holding the casket up, the young man inside pushes the casket open and sits up in his burial suit and all. 
Now, how would you feel if you were one of the disciples?  What about one of the spectators around?  What about the pall bearers!? And what about the mother?

    Allow these stories to get in on the inside of you so that God can work in your heart.  I guarantee you that as you read the Gospels like this you will never see Jesus the same again, and it never is boring!  All the stories in the bible are challenging like this, they stretch our faith and take the Jesus from 2000 years ago and puts Him right where He needs to be…here, in our day.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

    As you do this inevitably you will begin to have a slew of questions and new insights and revelation come to you.  So make sure you have a little notepad by you at all times.  And anytime something interesting comes to your mind, or a thought about a particular situation, or a question you may have, right it down and take a note.  Don’t study it out and try to figure it out, just make a note, soon the Lord will teach you Himself what it all means.

    You are simply reading the Gospels, you aren’t studying them for any particular reason or doctrine.  You’re not trying to learn anything, you’re just trying to read it and let God highlight what He wants to teach you Himself.  You will see Jesus like you have never seen Him before.  Things you thought you knew that you wouldn’t have paid attention to before.

    I believe this specific order (Mark, Luke, Matthew, John) is the best:

Mark – Mark is first because it is the shortest Gospel and it’s the most action packed.  You’ll get a very quick overview of the life of Jesus.  You’ll get the big picture of it all, it will be the foundation in understanding the remaining Gospels.

 Luke – Luke is more like an extended version of Mark.  Luke expands on the stories and gives more details about the life of Jesus and the things He said.

Matthew – Matthew has a lot of “red text”, meaning it has a lot of Jesus’ specific teachings in it.  A lot of it back to back without any real context.  It is my opinion that reading Mark and Luke first will give you a very strong reference and foundation as to what Jesus is talking about in Matthew.

John – John is the most amazing book to read once you have assimilated Mark, Luke and Matthew.  John was the one who was leaning on Jesus’ chest at the last supper.  John heard Jesus’ heartbeat.  It i my opinion that the culmination of everything Jesus wanted to tell His disciples is contained in John 14-17.  But you won’t get the full significance of it if you haven’t read the other 3 Gospels first.
 
    God gave me a picture of why reading the Gospels in this order is beneficial (not that you HAVE to read them in this order.) 
There were basically 4 groups of people that were around Jesus.  The outsiders who were just watching and listening to what was going on, they weren’t disciples, they were just observers.  This represents the book of Mark because it gives you the quickest overall picture of the life of Jesus.  There isn’t a lot of teachings, but it’s action packed enough to keep someone interested through all 16 chapters.

    From the outsiders there were the basic disciples of Jesus.  The “seventy”.  These weren’t the 12 disciples chosen, but they did follow Jesus and His teachings as He walked the earth.  These were also the 120 who were in the room at the day of Pentecost.  This represents the book of Luke because you learn more about Jesus’ walk and life in greater detail than Mark.
 
    From the disciples there were the chosen 12.  These were picked by Jesus to walk closely with Him and to be His first “missionaries”.  This represents the book of Matthew because the majority of the book is Jesus’ teachings.  In Matthew 13:11 He says "You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others have not.”.  As I mentioned before I don’t feel you can really understand what Jesus says in Matthew without first having the context of Mark and Luke.
 
    From the 12 disciples you have the “inner circle” of 3, James, Peter, and John.  These were the 3 that seem to be the chosen out of the 12 to be closer to Jesus.  This represents the book of John because in it you find out the big picture, the reason why Jesus came.  You are given a behind the scenes look at the life of Jesus and you get the heart and emotions of the life of Jesus and His disciple.

    As you read each Gospel you will get closer and closer to the heart of Jesus until, like John, you hear the heart beat of Jesus.