Easiest Spiritual Discipline Ever, part 2
I haven't got a nifty story to start out with this time, sorry.
Several days ago I talked about the importance of carrying your Bible with you at all times. I mentioned how we are very privileged as modern people to be able to do this, and how keeping your Bible with you and taking advantages of opportunities to read "on the go" encourages a more disciplined devotional life.
But why do we read the Bible at all? "Because it's the Word of God," the good Christian says.
What does it mean that the Bible is the Word of God? We in the west tend to think of it in terms of truth value: the Bible is the Word of God, meaning that everything the Bible says is true. You can trust the Bible to tell you the truth about God; so if you're going to be a Christian, you should know what the Bible says.
Certainly that's all true; but that's not what we actually use the Bible for most of the time. Using that definition of the Bible, all we need to do is look through it, extract the truths about God we need, and then move on with our lives. But we don't do that. We read it over and over and over again, even the same passages over and over again, long after we've extracted the needed doctrinal information. I read the Psalms all the way through every single month, and it's very, very rare that I learn any new fact or figure about God or Jesus. Yet I keep reading.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All scripture is inspired by God." The word "inspired" has to do with a breath or "spirit." In other words, Scripture comes from the Spirit of God. Paul goes so far as to say in 2 Corinthians 3 that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
Say something out loud right now, some sentence of your own. Notice how the word begins in your mind, then travels to your mouth. Now try saying the same thing, but this time without breathing out at all. Pretty hard, isn't it?
Genesis 1 says that God created things by speaking- through His Word. Psalm 33:6 adds another detail: "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host." Here the analogy of human speech is used for Divine speech: "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew and Greek are the same, and just like our words are made audible using breath, the Divine Word is made effective through the Spirit. This was true at Creation; this was true at the Incarnation, when the Word of God was made flesh "through the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18); and it is true today, whenever the Word is read or spoken. Wherever the Bible is opened, there the Spirit is present. Word and Spirit are inseparable.
Do we really believe this? Is that really what we think is happening when we read the Bible? When we hear the words of Scripture, is our immediate reaction to consider we are coming face to face with Almighty God? If we did, we would certainly read it more; but we would not only "read and hear" it, but also "mark, learn, and inwardly digest it." We would take care to learn it, study it, memorize it, and recite or read it at every turn: we would use it in our prayers, use it in our griefs, use it in our joys, use it when we need physical healing, use it when the Enemy attacks us, use it in "all the changes and chances of life," until we reach the eternal life it promises us.
I run the risk of turning the physical volume of Scripture, or even its words, into some kind of fetish or magic talisman; and I don't want to do that, because it is the Spirit that gives life; the letter by itself can only kill or keep dead what's dead. But the Spirit comes through the letter, and this is so easily forgotten today that I feel it needs to be said in the strongest way possible. Your Bible is your own personal Ark of the Covenant, a sure sign of God's presence with you. It is a sign, an effective sign, a sacrament if you will: God's grace is not confined to it, but generally speaking it comes through it. If you want to spend time in God's presence, then keep a Bible in your hands and its words, as many as you can manage to memorize, in your heart.
Several days ago I talked about the importance of carrying your Bible with you at all times. I mentioned how we are very privileged as modern people to be able to do this, and how keeping your Bible with you and taking advantages of opportunities to read "on the go" encourages a more disciplined devotional life.
But why do we read the Bible at all? "Because it's the Word of God," the good Christian says.
What does it mean that the Bible is the Word of God? We in the west tend to think of it in terms of truth value: the Bible is the Word of God, meaning that everything the Bible says is true. You can trust the Bible to tell you the truth about God; so if you're going to be a Christian, you should know what the Bible says.
Certainly that's all true; but that's not what we actually use the Bible for most of the time. Using that definition of the Bible, all we need to do is look through it, extract the truths about God we need, and then move on with our lives. But we don't do that. We read it over and over and over again, even the same passages over and over again, long after we've extracted the needed doctrinal information. I read the Psalms all the way through every single month, and it's very, very rare that I learn any new fact or figure about God or Jesus. Yet I keep reading.
Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All scripture is inspired by God." The word "inspired" has to do with a breath or "spirit." In other words, Scripture comes from the Spirit of God. Paul goes so far as to say in 2 Corinthians 3 that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
Say something out loud right now, some sentence of your own. Notice how the word begins in your mind, then travels to your mouth. Now try saying the same thing, but this time without breathing out at all. Pretty hard, isn't it?
Genesis 1 says that God created things by speaking- through His Word. Psalm 33:6 adds another detail: "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host." Here the analogy of human speech is used for Divine speech: "breath" and "spirit" in Hebrew and Greek are the same, and just like our words are made audible using breath, the Divine Word is made effective through the Spirit. This was true at Creation; this was true at the Incarnation, when the Word of God was made flesh "through the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18); and it is true today, whenever the Word is read or spoken. Wherever the Bible is opened, there the Spirit is present. Word and Spirit are inseparable.
Do we really believe this? Is that really what we think is happening when we read the Bible? When we hear the words of Scripture, is our immediate reaction to consider we are coming face to face with Almighty God? If we did, we would certainly read it more; but we would not only "read and hear" it, but also "mark, learn, and inwardly digest it." We would take care to learn it, study it, memorize it, and recite or read it at every turn: we would use it in our prayers, use it in our griefs, use it in our joys, use it when we need physical healing, use it when the Enemy attacks us, use it in "all the changes and chances of life," until we reach the eternal life it promises us.
I run the risk of turning the physical volume of Scripture, or even its words, into some kind of fetish or magic talisman; and I don't want to do that, because it is the Spirit that gives life; the letter by itself can only kill or keep dead what's dead. But the Spirit comes through the letter, and this is so easily forgotten today that I feel it needs to be said in the strongest way possible. Your Bible is your own personal Ark of the Covenant, a sure sign of God's presence with you. It is a sign, an effective sign, a sacrament if you will: God's grace is not confined to it, but generally speaking it comes through it. If you want to spend time in God's presence, then keep a Bible in your hands and its words, as many as you can manage to memorize, in your heart.