The last week’s news has been filled with threats of burning Islam’s ‘holy’ book, the Koran. Passions have been inflamed in both America and overseas, with counter –threats (some fulfilled) to burn the Bible. In fact the (Christian) Bible has been burned, banned and ridiculed for much of its two thousand year history.
The first Bible I remember reading was a big children’s picture bible. I was captivated not so much by the words, but by the Cecil B DeMille style pictures. Graphic illustrations of some of the Old Testament stories were truly of biblical proportions! Since deciding to follow Jesus as a teenager I have read my bible with a mixture of wonder and confusion. The bible has both inspired, and at times infuriated me. To this day my eyes can glaze over when dutifully reading what can seem at first glance to be archaic reflections of no apparent relevance to my 21st century world.
Of course nothing could be further from the truth – the Bible is, as it has always been, ‘relevant’. It is relevant in that in its pages, across its 66 books and through the contribution of its myriad of human authors I can hear the Word of God. The Bible is God’s story for God’s people. JI Packer has said, ‘God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture; God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture; and God the Spirit is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture.’ When I read the Bible with the Holy Spirit as my guide, mere words on a page can become a Living Word in my heart.
In the end I do not read the Bible for information, although it is full of fascinating history, beautiful poetry and incomparable wisdom. No, I read the Bible for transformation – that God might change me from the inside out. As WH Auden states, ‘A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.’
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Posted by: Gaurovalerie | July 21, 2011 at 06:01 PM