imagine

Imagine what would happen if gradually all the words of Scripture disappeared off the face of the earth. What would that be like? And imagine some time passing and what might occur among Christians and in the world after this phenemona. What might we learn from this? And then imagine Scripture gradually and fully reappearing on all the pages and places it had disappeared from. And what the end result might be, or at least the impact on the world at that time.

John Frye has written a recent and interesting short novel entitled, Out of Print. In it he works through this scenario with a number of characters one can identify with. From "ordinary" Christians to a Christian professor, a missionary couple whose painstaking work in translating Scripture into a language for the first time is lost, along with others. It is a good read, and two weeks from now on Friday, May 9 I will post on it to help us think it through. In the mean time you can order your own copy and read it beforehand.

I've had seasons in which I've slacked off in reading the Bible, and interestingly have often sensed more of the Spirit in my life during such times. They've actually been rare, as I've spent alot of my Christian life fairly heavy, relatively speaking I guess, in the word largely through hearing it and now largely through reading it, though I've begun to listen to it again.

A friend of mine thinks I may often be getting in the way of God. That I'm trying to do more than what God has done or is doing in me. Of course we're to work out what God is working in us. I think this friend has a point in what they're telling me. They're not telling me to be in the word less, but sometimes I think the way I'm in the word of God can actually get in the way of God's word getting through to me. It's like a steady drum beat that if one is not careful can become humdrum. I may be in it just to be in it, rather than be changed by it, or by God through his word.

I like to be in the word frequently throughout each day (though I do admit to slacking off often during normal weekends without missing my normal Bible reading for the most part) and in different ways: listening to it, interacting through a passage with others (our weekly team devotions at RBC Ministries), glancing at a passage I'm slowly working through throughout the day at work, use a different translation or rendering such as The Message, even working through a psalm from my small Bible while I'm driving, which you'll be happy to hear I don't do anymore (though Tiffany thinks I drive at least just as well doing that, which I hope doesn't tell you anything about my driving that's bad!).

Anyhow I look forward to thinking through John's novel together. It's stimulating and fun, and hopefully we can bounce some thoughts off each other and learn some things to both deepen our appreciation of the word, and promote its impact on us, or perhaps better put, God speaking into our lives.

What might you like to add to all of this?