“The Bible is no magic book, but a strange, enigmatic power stirs when we reach for the Scriptures. Something influential, though invisible, is happening as we hear God’s words read or spoken, and when we read or study. Something supernatural, but unseen, transpires as we see the text in front of us and take it into our souls. Someone unseen moves.” David Mathis, Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus Through the Spiritual Disciplines, 52. The book I recommend to better understand how…
Put Your Nose in the Text
“At the end of the day, there is simply no replacement for finding a regular time and place, blocking out distractions, putting your nose in the text, and letting your mind and heart be led and captured and thrilled by God himself communicating to us in his objective written words… There is no substitute for a few focused minutes each day in the text. You may be surprised how much the little bits add up over the long haul.” David…
No Truer Act of Homage
“To the Puritan the Bible was in truth the most precious possession that this world affords. His deepest conviction was that reverence for God means reverence for Scripture, and serving God means obeying Scripture. To his mind, therefore, no greater insult could be offered to the Creator than to neglect his written word; and, conversely, there could be no truer act of homage to him than to prize it and pore over it, and then to live out and give…
Listen to God Preaching
“Holy Scripture, the inspired Word (message) of the living God, may truly be described as God preaching… All that Bible writers tell us about God and man, God himself tells us, for the sacred text is not just man’s witness to God, but is also, and indeed primarily, God’s own witness to himself, given us in this human form. Everything in Scripture teaches us something of the Father’s plan, something of the ministry and majesty of the Son as fulfiller…
Face to Face
The early church was stronger relationally for not being able to text each other. Surprised? Actually, the more modern technology advances, the more we appear to be adversely affected relationally. In her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, author Sherry Turkle explains why: “We are changed as technology offers us substitutes for connecting with each other face-to-face…As we instant message, e-mail, text, and Twitter, technology redraws the boundaries between intimacy and solitude……