reading and pondering

I heard a recent exchange among men on the importance of "the spiritual discipline of study." Was good, but not entirely sure what to think of it, except I have either misplaced, or never owned my own copy of the book they were referring to (good author). I will be looking at that book soon. One of our pastors, Sharon, in the past has taken us through Lectio Divina in reading Scripture, and it was good.

My point here is that I think we need to learn to read the Bible well. This will involve rereading it, to be sure. And reading it slowly and carefully. Pondering its meaning both for the original readers, and for us today. And trying to catch something of God's voice to us through that.

I have listened to the Bible being read I think dozens of times in my life. That is good, and keeps me in all the books throughout the year. Yet I find that the best reading I do is the kind where I can stop and ponder what I just read. If we sweep over a book, that is good as well, because a cardinal sin of Bible reading, and Bible memory is to take one "precious promise" or whatever from Scripture out of context. We need to read each part of every book in the context of that book.

But we also need to let what we read soak in. We need to ponder and think through each thought we read. And see it all in terms of the Story of God, and how we fit into that story.

This takes time and effort. It certainly involves being in the Book daily, or at least regularly. But it also involves living life and reading other books and listening to others. The Bible reflects real life and the real world, so that we need not be threatened by what we hear and read out there, as we continue to read Scripture. Indeed, we'll often find it eveh helpful to us. Of course not all of us are readers, though probably most bloggers are, so that most anyone who will read this, is. But I find that we need to be in Scripture reguarly, and we understand Scripture better as we seek to grow in living as fully as we can in this life before God through Christ with other believers for the sake of the world.

What has any of you found to be true from your own life and experience in this?

Dietrich Dietrich Bonhoeffer on persevering in mediation on God's word

Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in meditation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our meditation period with great patience and fidelity.

....We must center our attention on the Word alone and leave consequences to its action.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 83-84

the effect of God's word

I generally notice a difference in myself when I'm meditating on God's word, and when I'm not. It's true that we're normally pondering something. I can easily get enmeshed and lost in my own thoughts, which sometimes go down a pathway that is not helpful or good.

As I take up a portion or passage in Scripture, I find over time as I ponder that grace begins to set in. God's love by the Spirit comes to the fore, and the old, doomed thoughts and attitudes are gone.

This is why I like to be in God's word all day as much as possible. God's word has a power all its own, and a wildness which can't be tamed, except by our systematic theologies, which can take the potency and power, yes what it really is as God's word, right out of it- and by themselves they do, as this excellent book which I'm rereading once again is reminding me.

How does God's word impact you? Or what would you like to share here?

cast on God

At work when I can I've been meditating on Psalm 22 from which Jesus quotes on the cross in his sense of abandonment by God. It is wonderful to slowly work one's way through a passage, and specifically this passage, pondering as one goes along.

Yesterday, among other things, I seemed especially struck with this phrase: "From birth I was cast on you..." (note these two interesting renderings of this).

For the psalmist this began at birth. But it's ongoing through all of life for God's people. I believe it includes all of humanity, but we need the eyes of faith to see and believe it.

To be cast on God for us is ongoing; we never outgrow this need. I think we readily see our need of this through the inevitable troubles we face in life. Some of them are problems we're used to, and up to a point we think we can handle. Though we should learn that our every breath and action is to be done in dependence on God and interdependence on others, particulary others in God.

I think especially of those troubling times and trials which hit us. They can be personal attacks against us. Scripture is filled with examples of that; Psalm 22 is a good example. They can be fears that hit and beset us at times. Anger in reaction to perceived injustice that we know we need to keep in check and deal with, while appropriately acting on it, primarily if not solely through prayer. I'm just trying to think of examples here, in which we are reminded anew of how we need to be cast on God.

It's a blessing to be cast on God, but also a necessity in this life in following Jesus. As we learn to cast ourselves and our cares on God, then we will find God's help and consolations. But this is ongoing for us in Jesus in this life. Part of being weak in Jesus so that we can be strong by God's Spirit to live out God's will for us.

What would you like to add to this?

pondering

"The best things in life comes to those who wait." I find some truth in that from Scripture, in Jesus. Mary, Jesus' mother, is said to have pondered what was said about her son, Jesus, at his birth, as well as storing in her heart what Jesus did and said as a twelve year old. In that is a good precedent for us all. And I have to wonder if Eve would have been taken in and deceived by that old serpent, the devil, if she would have pondered God's word to her.

I may understand some difficult sayings in Scripture and elsewhere from people of God, in some sort of superficial way. Words are important, conveying concepts, and we can't minimize them, because God gave them to us through humans, and directly- as the word of God. So we need to use our minds in seeking to understand.

But we also have to understand that though our minds are a vehicle, in its nature, God's work is revelation from God. We don't get there simply through a mind exercise, but in a relational sense. Scripture is God's living word not only when it was given through the human writers, but also to human readers and hearers, now.

Pondering involves meditation. And we're to meditate day and night on God's word. We keep doing so as those who are seeking to hear and understand better God's revealed will to us. And in that pondering, we're also to be endeavoring to seek the Lord. This pondering is relational at its core.

For me this pondering is important. I take one of my Bibles at work, and lay it out to a specific passage on which I'll meditate, or ponder. I do so often by memorizing, or working slowly through a passage. Due to the nature of my work, memorizing is good, or going over the same passage and lines over and over again, as I do my necessary work. Like Mary, there's a reward as we keep after it. I can remember my pondering being as dry as can be, but by the end of the day I understood something of the reality to which God in Jesus was calling me, through that Scripture. A light was shining in my heart for the pathway of my life in Jesus.

What thoughts might you like to add here?

meditating on God's word

Meditating on God's word is something we need to do, day and night. In other words, regularly. It's good to read widely, and I aspire to that. It's important to read good commentaries on Scripture and books with reference to the faith. I believe strongly in that, and I don't think we can read the Bible properly or correctly, just on our own, even with the help of the Spirit. The Spirit can help us, individually, in our reading, don't get me wrong. But the Spirit chooses to work through the Church, Christ's Body, so we'd best do both: being in Scripture ourselves, along with others informally and formally. See here, for an excellent explanation on this.

I've recently been working through an excellent commentary on Philemon, Colossians and Ephesians- while at work in my factory job, slowly going over Ephesians. Saying it over and over in my mind has helped me to appreciate its beauty and power as God's word spoken in Jesus into my life. And having listened to The Bible Experience, I can hear the voices reading it, and I've found this helpful. I am, admittedly, an audio learner; it seems that I learn best by hearing, though a combination in using our senses to learn, is good.

It's good and important to be reading all of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, but it's also good and important to simply dwell in a passage or a book, for awhile. Let the words sink in to our minds and hearts and lives. Ponder over them. And respond to God's grace in Jesus. Even if that means just being silent before God.

What would you like to add to these thoughts on this?

bite-sized pieces

This evening, in responding to Andrew's comment here, I was led to think of what I've been doing recently in relation to reading Scripture, which for me so far has proved to be far more satisfying than my recent past practice, or practice before that.

Over the years and certainly so in recent months I would most every day go through relatively large portions of Scripture. It was good, especially early on, as I was hearing God's word read and through parts of it, I believe God was speaking to my heart, while the rest I was getting exposed to. I think whenever we read Scripture we should simply value each reading for the reading itself in relation to the goal of such reading: to hear God and know him and his will for us better.

Lately, as I stated in an earlier post, I had become fatigued over all the Scripture reading both morning and evening, and found myself just wanting to get it done. Not good in really getting the point as to why it is given to us.

I then simply stopped reading pretty much altogether for awhile, just taking in some from The Bible Experience, and a short portion daily from Scripture. After a couple weeks of this I knew I needed to really get back into the word again.

So now I'm taking it in throughout the day in bite-sized pieces. Smaller portions, read with prayer. I'm liking it. I think it's helping prevent me from missing the point of why it's given, something I'm good at doing, I'm afraid.

We're to meditate, and in the words of Scripture, "eat this book" (to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Apostle John in the Revelation). This involves the whole thing, not just the parts we like. I really kind of dislike these little promise books that have verses pasted in to help people in this and that trouble. Sometimes such verses are taken out of context, though I wouldn't say they don't do any good at all for people. But we need to learn to take in the whole, all of God's word from Genesis to Revelation.

Yet for me, at least now, I need to do so frequently in bite-sized pieces. Not too much at a time and with prayer. And often every day, being my goal.

We need to be those who are hungry for God's word because we love God and want in Jesus to grow in his will in our character and actions. And simply because we know we need it, even if most of the time we don't really understand what's going on in the process.

How about you? How do you like to take in Scripture? Or any thoughts about this that could help us?