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Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Exploring Scripture



            Read the Bible. This is the theme of my newsletter articles quite often because the Bible is there and it doesn’t change. Styles of communication change. Styles of dress and hair and cars all come and go. Ways of talking evolve over time. Just read a novel from 1900, and then from 1945, and then 1995. How politics function changes over time.

            The word God is constant, always true, and always relevant. Recently, we heard Erin Stratton preach on Genesis 3 (July 30), and then Amy Brown preached on the same passage (October 1). Go back and listen to both sermons. The links are at the bottom. Amy’s message had some flaws in the video, but you can hear her entire message. Both preachers delivered strong messages that will edify your soul.

            Amy invited us to ‘explore scripture.’ I echo this. In a sermon on Genesis 3, she succinctly wove in references from 1 Kings, Proverbs, and 1 Peter. None of these allusions were forced. They all fit her overall point that when we come to God with honest questions and ask them, we grow closer to God’s heart. She did not promise God will answer every question; God won’t. There are things we aren’t ready to know. However, we are invited to seek.

            Thus, I return to my original point. Read the Bible. Make Bible-reading a life-long pursuit and practice. Be in the word. At other times, I’ve explained various approaches to Bible reading. Whether you read chunks of scripture, entire books in one sitting, or spend considerable time meditating on just a few lines of one or two verses, prayerfully, thoughtfully, attentively consume scripture. Be so driven to meet God in the word that it might feel impossible to live without it.

            If you do this prayerfully, if you read scripture in tandem with seeking God, you won’t have deleterious outcomes. You will be blessed and you will grow in your knowledge of God. I thank both our preachers who treated Genesis 3 for calling us to this most Christian of activities; the motivated reading of scripture with the motive of knowing God.

 

Erin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKSKGoh1wmk

Amy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jflucW5zMlw


 

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