After discovering last week that the goal of our Wednesday night class goal is actually reading through the entire Bible in 120 days, not 90, I recomputed my pace to have me about a month ahead of schedule. If that sounds like boasting, let me confess to speed-eating much of it thus far, as the Old Testament, in particular, is filled with repeated genealogies, endless legalities regarding early Jewish rituals, and account after account of backslidden kings assassinated by someone looking to inherit the throne. In my opinion, every believer needs to take the journey at a slow pace a few times; but the Book, in its entirety, was never meant to hold us prisoner by some requirement to memorize all the history therein. That’s not to say, having accomplished a perusal of it pages, one can let it gather dust on the coffee table. Assignment completed. The Word is a vital part of authoritative truth, human error on our part corrected by the Spirit as we go if we keep ourselves open to His reins on our heart. It’s like finding buried treasure in your own backyard, not so much like a bag of gold able to be instantly converted to financial asset, but more like truth that yet needs the next step down the path to determine just how much your thinking has distorted the picture. It’s like reading in Zechariah and one minute he is prophesying unto those of his own generation and, the next, his words reach far into the future, speaking to me of a day to come. Scripture is able to penetrate a man’s heart as well as his head, stir the waters and heal the soul. It is a medicine that, once received, continues to minister to us beyond a physical connection if the Great Physician is known through a personal, inner connected restored in Christ. Holiness isn’t the “old, old story” inked on paper pages. He is a Reality who abides within me……
You would think that a person who is fascinated by genealogy would be okay with all the begats and begets that go on in the Old Testament but I'm here to tell you that it ain't necessarily so. Even I can only take so much fact-feeding.
ReplyDeleteWow, 90?!? And a month to digest. Very good.
Some approach these rapid marathons through the Book as if just putting the words into your brain somehow equips you for the next problem you face, as if you, yourself, have loaded your bag with ammunition and when the enemy comes, you, the good soldier have but to pull out a verse and conquer the enemy. I've never seen it in such way. The Book should take me to Him. He... is my best defense, my best offense. He may well take me to the Book; but He, not the Scripture divided by my own thinking, is my strength....
DeleteAbsolutely. It does say that even the enemy can quote Scripture.
ReplyDeleteAs they say, it ain't a race, right? ;-)