It’s sacred, it’s special and it’ll change your life! Best of all, the author is ready to meet you and wants you to use his words to direct your life, writes Keith Warrington who heads up ‘Word and Spirit’
“If I had a Bible of my own…” These were the words of Phalla, a 22-year-old, poverty-stricken Christian from Cambodia who had once owned a Bible. Her brother had moved from their village to find work and Phalla had given him a gift – the best she had… her Bible, her only Bible. She had no money to buy another one for herself.
A little while later, she was asked, “Phalla, what would you do if you had a Bible of your own?”
Her response was immediate, “If I had a Bible of my own, it would be me and God. I would read it slowly and taste it word by word.”
When I read those words, I was challenged to check my own dedication to reading the Bible… from the variety of translations that were available to me. I have built processes to ensure that I also value the Bible as being uniquely special and read it slowly to ensure that I don’t miss what God has to say through it to me.
But, then I read Phalla’s words again… “If I had a Bible of my own, it would be me and God.” She didn’t say, “If I had a Bible of my own, it would be me and my Bible.” She said it would be ‘me and God’. She had identified a truth that Western Christianity has largely forgotten. It’s this – the Bible is a dynamic collection of God’s words that he speaks to Christians. If we remember this, it will revolutionise the way we read the Word of God.
We have moved far from the attitude of the Israelites who, Ezra 9:4 records, trembled when they read God’s Word – because we have increasingly thought of the Bible as a book to be studied instead of an opportunity to hear God speak to us through it. It’s become a textbook instead of a letter from God. The Bible was never primarily intended to be a database of doctrines but an altar where we and God would meet – and we would sense his presence.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2017 من iBelieve Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2017 من iBelieve Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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