Many years ago a friend who was getting a Ph.D. in Religion at the University of Chicago invited me to a seminar on the Bible with his classmates. About a dozen or so were around the table discussing some passage in the Bible. It suddenly struck me that this was simply the discussion of a text, discussion that you could had about Shakespeare or Dante. The Scripture was not impacting their lives. Like Jeremiah’s contemporaries looked at his preaching, it was simply good advice like instruction from the priests, counsel from the wise, messages from the prophets. But the Scripture is, according to the Letter to the Hebrews, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). When we read the Bible God is present, God is speaking to us. God is alive. Not just instruction or a message, reading the Bible provides an encounter with the living God.
MARCH82023
By Church Staff
