Life Together
So as I have started working and getting into the groove of that, the pure discipline of "work" has allowed me to begin other disciplines. While work leaves me with less time on my plate than school did, it's made me want to do certain things. I think physical work especially helps me to stay in the groove, so that when I come home I'm ready to do something. Office work just saps me, especially when I'm trying desperately to justify my existence. Anyways, here's what I read in Bonhoeffer about reading scripture that somehow kicked me into gear (italics mine, parenthetical statements like this one are mine too):
"The prayer of the psalms, concluded with a hymn by the family fellowship, should be followed by a Scripture reading. "Give attendance to reading (I Timothy 4:13). Here, too, we shall have to overcome many harmful prejudices before we achieve the right way of reading the Scriptures together. Almost all of us have grown up with the idea that the Scripture reading is only a matter of hearing the Word of God for this particular day. That is why for many the Scripture reading is only a matter of hearing the Word of God for this particular day. That is why for many the Scripture reading consists only of a few, brief, selected verses which are to form the guiding thought of the day. There can be no doubt that the daily Bible passages published by the Moravian Brethren, for example, are a real belssing to all who have ever used them. This was discovered by many to their grateful astonishment particularly during the church struggle. But there can be equally little doubt that brief verses cannot and should not take the place of reading Scripture as a whole. The verse for the day is not the Holy Scripture which will remain throughout all time until the Last Day. Holy Scripture is more than a watchword. It is also more than "light for today." It is God's revealed Word for all men, for all times. Holy Scripture does not consist of individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.
As a whole the Scriptures are God's revealing Word. Only in the infiniteness of its inner relationships, i nthe connection of Old and New Testaments, of promise and fulfillment, sacrifice and law, law and gospel, cross and resurrection, faith and obedience, having and hoping, will the full witness to Jesus Christ the Lord be perceived. This is why common devotions will include, besides the prayer of the psalms, a longer reading from the Old and the New Testament.
A Christian family fellowship should surely be able to read and listen to a chapter of the Old Testament and at least half of a chapter of the New Testament every morning and evening. When the practice is first tried, of course, most people will find even this modest measure too much and will offer resistance. It will be objected that it is impossible to take in and retain such an abundance of ideas and associations, that it even shows disrespect for God's Word to read more than one can seriously assimilate. These objections will cause us quite readily to content ourselves again with reading only verses (or not reading at all).
In truth, however, there lurks in this attitude a grave error. If it is really true that it is hard for us, as adult Christians, to comprehend even a chapter of the Old Testament in sequence, then this can only fill us with profound shame; what kind of testimony is that to our knowledge of the Scriptures and all our previous reading of them? If we were familiar with the substance of what we read we should be able to follow a chapter without difficulty, especially if we have an open Bible in our hands and participate in the reading. But, of course, we must admit that the Scriptures are still largely unknown to us. Can the realization of our fault, our ignorance of the Word of God, have any other consequence than that we should earnestly and faithfully retrieve what has been neglected? And should not ministers be the very first to get to work at this point?"
Gotta get back to work. Thanks to invites for blogging, I am here. I shall endow you with more wisdom and foolishness later.
"The Lord be with you, and also with you."
As a whole the Scriptures are God's revealing Word. Only in the infiniteness of its inner relationships, i nthe connection of Old and New Testaments, of promise and fulfillment, sacrifice and law, law and gospel, cross and resurrection, faith and obedience, having and hoping, will the full witness to Jesus Christ the Lord be perceived. This is why common devotions will include, besides the prayer of the psalms, a longer reading from the Old and the New Testament.
A Christian family fellowship should surely be able to read and listen to a chapter of the Old Testament and at least half of a chapter of the New Testament every morning and evening. When the practice is first tried, of course, most people will find even this modest measure too much and will offer resistance. It will be objected that it is impossible to take in and retain such an abundance of ideas and associations, that it even shows disrespect for God's Word to read more than one can seriously assimilate. These objections will cause us quite readily to content ourselves again with reading only verses (or not reading at all).
In truth, however, there lurks in this attitude a grave error. If it is really true that it is hard for us, as adult Christians, to comprehend even a chapter of the Old Testament in sequence, then this can only fill us with profound shame; what kind of testimony is that to our knowledge of the Scriptures and all our previous reading of them? If we were familiar with the substance of what we read we should be able to follow a chapter without difficulty, especially if we have an open Bible in our hands and participate in the reading. But, of course, we must admit that the Scriptures are still largely unknown to us. Can the realization of our fault, our ignorance of the Word of God, have any other consequence than that we should earnestly and faithfully retrieve what has been neglected? And should not ministers be the very first to get to work at this point?"
Gotta get back to work. Thanks to invites for blogging, I am here. I shall endow you with more wisdom and foolishness later.
"The Lord be with you, and also with you."
posted by Chris TerryNelson at 9:57 AM
1 Comments:
Thx for the challenge Chris. Good to see you on the site, too.
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