Earlier this week, Carlos Whittaker (known as @loswhit in many circles) posted about the difficulty of bible reading. I have been in and out of a rhythm of scripture in my life. I spent the last year building a permanent reading into my day. I did a cover to cover reading for the first time last year. I started a 90 day plan this year and have stayed up so far (Aaron Mansfield is the guy that convinced me to do it). I have also added a more devotional reading time to my day as well.
My friend Tom Baker runs a great blog about his explorations through scripture as a worship song leader. I spent over an hour there the other day reading through his thoughts.
Drew Causey has spent the last few weeks ruminating through the texts in the church calender. His thoughts are excellent and often show what it means to be stretched by reading with the calender. Both of these bloggers are doing this not to proclaim information, but to process in public. We need more of this.
Thinking of what forms us as Christians, one of the first things that comes to mind is the practice of scripture. I say practice, for we must think of this as an active life, not just sentimental devotion. Rather than an activity of leisure, it is a pattern of humility and confidence we slowly build, layering reading upon reading. Imagine if we let scripture take control of our lives? It is quite possible that everything would change! We do this by making scripture a part time job, carving out plenty of time throughout our entire week for it. A chapter a day might keep the devil away, but this simply keeps us in the fight, never defeating what chases us.
Creating a rhythm of scripture is hard, but necessary. For folks involved in worship it is even more essential. Scripture creates a world around us, helping to understand our nature as a people in transition. We journey towards an eternal kingdom. Scripture resets our location. The spiritual life requires an immense amount of discipline, and must be done with other people.
The picture above contains a brief quote of a theme that runs throughout scripture, as well as the title of a great Eugene Peterson book about the Bible. More and more, I feel myself stretched as a minister in transition. I realize my main vocation means an immersion in the book. Everything else flows outward from that task.
Let us liberate the holy book from the magazine rack and put it into our heart, hands and head.
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