... about the Bible.1

I’ve been doing a lot of study recently ABOUT the Bible: how we got it, interpretation, translating… I hope to blog more about this over the next few days. This paragraph below reminded me that I need to remember to include study OF it as well (and how it “studies” me):

David Jeremiah talks about a well-known Old Testament scholar who spent the summer in Jerusalem as part of a team of scholars working on a new translation of the Bible. When he returned to the classroom in September, he told his students it had been a carnal, spiritually dry summer. His students were shocked. Weren't they studying God's Word all day? He replied, "It became a project instead of a passion. We became so familiar with the intricacies of the text that we stopped seeing its grandeur."

Jeremiah adds, "Is it possible to study the Bible in a carnal fashion? Apparently so. Maybe when you read the professor's testimony, you said to yourself, 'That's happened to me.' You don't have to be a scholar or translator to lose sight of the inestimable privilege of reading God's Word. It can happen when you become so faithful with your quiet time that it becomes a routine -- something to check off your 'to-do' list for the day." As you pick up your copy of God's Word today, take time to meditate on its power and its unique value. Take time to thank God for allowing you to handle His precious Word, and ask Him to help you discover new riches in those remarkable pages.

Barbara Brown Taylor says this about scripture: “The word of God turned out to be plenty strong enough to withstand my curiosity. Every time I poked it, it poked me back. Every time I wrenched it around so I could see inside, it sprang back into shape the moment I was through. In short, the Bible turned out not to be a fossil under glass but a thousand different things — a mirror, a scythe, a hammock, a lantern, a pair of binoculars, a high diving board, a bridge, a goad — all of them offering themselves to me to be touched and handled and used.” (found on Mike Cope’s site today – http://www.preachermike.com/)

As A.W. Tozer said, "The sacred page is not meant to be the end, but only the means toward the end, which is knowing God Himself."