Chapter 15 - Bible Reading

Chapter 15 referenced 7 scripture passages to heighten our understanding of the imperative of reading and knowing the Bible:

John 8:31-32
Hebrews 4:12-13
1 Peter 1:13-25
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
John 5:31-47
2 Peter 1:3-21
2 Timothy 3:10-17

The hymn for Chapter 15 was "Lamp of Our Feet” by Bernard D. Barton. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of William Johnston, Edward J. Farrell, Gretchen Gaebelein Hull, Frederick Buechner, Ira Progoff, Martin E. Marty, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, George Cornell, and “A Compend of Wesley’s Theology” edited by Robert W. Burtner and Robert E. Chiles. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “…the force and power in the word of God is so great that it remains the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her children, the food of the soul, the pure and perennial source of spiritual life.”
· “It is Scripture, the Word of God that is the reality-depth of our prayer, for ‘we speak to Him when we pray: we hear Him when we read the divine sayings.’ …What would happen to us if we would more deeply believe the truth – God speaks! God speaks to me! …God is speaking directly to me in Scripture.”
· “Maintain at all costs a daily time of Scripture reading and prayer.”
· “What I began to see was that the Bible is not essentially, as I had always more or less supposed, a book of ethical principles, of moral exhortations, of cautionary tales about exemplary people, of uplifting thoughts… I saw it instead as a great, tattered compendium of writings, the underlying and unifying purpose of all of which is to show how God works through the Jacobs and Jabboks of history to make himself known to the world and to draw the world back to himself. …Until you can read the story of Adam and Eve, of Abraham and Sarah, of David and Bathsheba, as your own story, you have not really understood it.”
· “…God’s word whether written or spoken may be compared to a mirror. Spiritually, the eyes of your soul are your reason, your consciousness is your spiritual face. …if you have a dirty spot on your physical face your eyes cannot see that spot … without a mirror … ; so it is spiritually … that without reading or hearing God’s word it is not possible for a soul blinded by habitual sin to see the foul spot upon his consciousness.”
· “The Bible has to be plundered and searched for what has to do with one’s promise.”
· “…this word which sets us at once to work and obedience, is the rock on which to build our house.”
· “The Bible is the record of those divine breakthroughs into human history. ‘God’s search for man,’ it is described, rather than being our search for God. …Unlike most religious literature, it is not chiefly a collection of noble sayings, but a drumroll of events, people, struggles, great and terrible, of frailty, doubts and heroism, of the ultimate might of right. …It is ‘salvation history,’…a vivid…account of God’s persistent, unrelenting quest for us and our stumbling, often faithless response.”
· “I want to know one thing – the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way… . He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! …here is knowledge enough for me.”
· “We are to hear. All of us. That is what the whole Bible is calling out. ‘Hear, O Israel!’ But hear what? …The Bible is hundreds upon hundreds of voices all calling at once out of the past and clamoring for our attention… . And somewhere in the midst of them all one particular voice speaks out that is unlike any other voice… . Come, the voice says. Unto me. All ye. Every last one.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 15 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site.

John