Do we keep the Bible front and center every day of our lives? I know I don't every single day. But most days, especially with normal pressure on me, as in weekdays, I do so. At least in my own way.
I have a paperback TNIV Bible which I carry around on the factory floor. It is open to a passage I'm meditating on, yesterday this passage in 1 Corinthians 10. I partly work at memorizing, but with the goal to meditate and really take in the truths of God in Jesus, from the words which I keep mulling over.
On days with less pressure I still want to keep the Bible front and center, and sometimes succeed to some extent. But those days can be swallowed up with other activities which to a point is fine. Yet can be a loss for me.
The Bible front and center is a continuing by me, through the influence and help of others (like The Bible Experience), to meditate on the truth of God, and find my place in the Story of God in Jesus. My place not just for my life, but for that day. It is actually a seeking to open myself up to God's voice to speak into my existence here. A major goal of the Bible, God's word, is to make me a living word in the Word, Jesus. A living, loving word from God to others in the ongoing story of God unfolding before each one of us, everyday. From the word of love in Jesus I receive from God.
What would you like to add to these few thoughts?
Showing posts with label The Bible Experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bible Experience. Show all posts
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
wisdom's appeal
In starting on Proverbs in The Bible Experience, I'm struck by the clear appeal and warning of wisdom to humankind. It speaks in a way which is the mark of wisdom, so that we need to take heed to wisdom's words here, and also wisdom's manner.
In the same way wisdom speaks in Proverbs we need to learn to speak to others. Appealing to them as human beings who can choose, trying to persuade them, and also warning them of the consequences of not heeding God's voice.
Of course we must first be committed to this wisdom to become a part of our lives before we attempt to help others. We must affirm wisdom personally before God and in our lives. Then we can seek to affirm it when opportunities present themselves, in timely and helpful fashion to those around us.
Being in Proverbs today for me was like being in the most refreshing water spot you can imagine in a desert. Maybe I wasn't quite that parched and dry, but I do think my being was welcoming the word of wisdom to my heart and mind and life.
We're to embrace wisdom; to love it and in return know its love. Not an easy calling since we're so prone to wander to our own devices, which are not in line with wisdom.
Jesus is said to be our wisdom from God, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. In him we can set ourselves towards wisdom, and the way of wisdom. We can be led by wisdom's gentle yet firm and sometimes disciplining hand. Or we can turn our backs on it to foolishness, and thus get our own way down the highway to destruction. Proverbs minces no words for us there. There are just two ways: the way of life and the way of death. Let us choose and persevere on the way in Jesus, and truly know the wisdom that gives life.
What would you like to add here?
In the same way wisdom speaks in Proverbs we need to learn to speak to others. Appealing to them as human beings who can choose, trying to persuade them, and also warning them of the consequences of not heeding God's voice.
Of course we must first be committed to this wisdom to become a part of our lives before we attempt to help others. We must affirm wisdom personally before God and in our lives. Then we can seek to affirm it when opportunities present themselves, in timely and helpful fashion to those around us.
Being in Proverbs today for me was like being in the most refreshing water spot you can imagine in a desert. Maybe I wasn't quite that parched and dry, but I do think my being was welcoming the word of wisdom to my heart and mind and life.
We're to embrace wisdom; to love it and in return know its love. Not an easy calling since we're so prone to wander to our own devices, which are not in line with wisdom.
Jesus is said to be our wisdom from God, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom. In him we can set ourselves towards wisdom, and the way of wisdom. We can be led by wisdom's gentle yet firm and sometimes disciplining hand. Or we can turn our backs on it to foolishness, and thus get our own way down the highway to destruction. Proverbs minces no words for us there. There are just two ways: the way of life and the way of death. Let us choose and persevere on the way in Jesus, and truly know the wisdom that gives life.
What would you like to add here?
Thursday, August 07, 2008
listening to "The Bible Experience"- Icons
Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed yesterday had a post on The Bible Experience and I weighed in a few times on it. I'm really enjoying listening to it, and unlike the listening of the Bible I did for years, my wife likes this.
I am in the Old Testament now, and I actually am able to borrow the CD's from our public library system and pick them up within easy walking distance of our house, which is nice. But someday I want to purchase my own, maybe an MP3 version.
You ought to give them a listen. I love certain aspects of them, and have found nothing I dislike, yet.
I like to hear Scripture read, and tend to learn by hearing. This is different in that you're hearing Scripture, but it has a strong element of dramatization in it, as well. Right now I'm hearing a voice for God's voice (in Exodus), and I think it's well done, but imagine how it might reflect more of what we can understand of God from Scripture. A great voice to portray God's voice in quality and manner, but clearly male. But then I realize there is an iconic quality to all of this.
Icons are not the real thing, but they help God's people reflect on the real thing, and press past the images to the reality. Of course icons in Eastern Orthodox are purposively austere and meant only to help the faithful reflect on and enter into the reality behind them.
My own preference is probably still for just a good straightforward reading of Scripture heard from one person. Even then interpretation is inevitable in how they read it. But it's much more text-driven (of course the text from the original, in translation involves significant interpretation). But even with the fine dramatization and all the interpretation that goes into that, we can know it's still just a representation, not the reality. Though it is God's word.
And if we remember that we are iconic ourselves, as humans, "Eikons" (from Greek rendering of the word) as Scot McKnight likes to put it, made in God's image- we certainly are not expressionless. Jesus himself is the perfect Icon and in that in him we find our way back towards full restoration as Icons of God.
So remembering that, I can be happy with the good dramatization, remembering all along that it is representative or a window to move us towards the reality which by faith we can begin to see and understand.
So give The Bible Experience a listen some time. Sampling it is okay, but the best way to appreciate it is to listen more and more to it. And for me, in my recent bout with depression, it's been a good way of getting me back into Scripture reading.
Any thoughts on my thinking here, or on The Bible Experience?
I am in the Old Testament now, and I actually am able to borrow the CD's from our public library system and pick them up within easy walking distance of our house, which is nice. But someday I want to purchase my own, maybe an MP3 version.
You ought to give them a listen. I love certain aspects of them, and have found nothing I dislike, yet.
I like to hear Scripture read, and tend to learn by hearing. This is different in that you're hearing Scripture, but it has a strong element of dramatization in it, as well. Right now I'm hearing a voice for God's voice (in Exodus), and I think it's well done, but imagine how it might reflect more of what we can understand of God from Scripture. A great voice to portray God's voice in quality and manner, but clearly male. But then I realize there is an iconic quality to all of this.
Icons are not the real thing, but they help God's people reflect on the real thing, and press past the images to the reality. Of course icons in Eastern Orthodox are purposively austere and meant only to help the faithful reflect on and enter into the reality behind them.
My own preference is probably still for just a good straightforward reading of Scripture heard from one person. Even then interpretation is inevitable in how they read it. But it's much more text-driven (of course the text from the original, in translation involves significant interpretation). But even with the fine dramatization and all the interpretation that goes into that, we can know it's still just a representation, not the reality. Though it is God's word.
And if we remember that we are iconic ourselves, as humans, "Eikons" (from Greek rendering of the word) as Scot McKnight likes to put it, made in God's image- we certainly are not expressionless. Jesus himself is the perfect Icon and in that in him we find our way back towards full restoration as Icons of God.
So remembering that, I can be happy with the good dramatization, remembering all along that it is representative or a window to move us towards the reality which by faith we can begin to see and understand.
So give The Bible Experience a listen some time. Sampling it is okay, but the best way to appreciate it is to listen more and more to it. And for me, in my recent bout with depression, it's been a good way of getting me back into Scripture reading.
Any thoughts on my thinking here, or on The Bible Experience?
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