Tuesday, April 23, 2013

How The Bible is Read

I was reading back on the Cost of Discipleship, and then it struck me that I ought to revisit some points Bonhoeffer made in his letter to Rudiger Schleicher about the reading of the Bible.

1) The Bible is the answer to all our questions... we need only to ask insistently and with some humility for us to receive the answer from it.
2) The Bible cannot be read like another other book (it is not a "text"). "Studying/analyzing" it will only reveal its superficial surface. 
3) We must "really question" the Bible for it to be revealed to us, because the Bible is where God, who loves us, speaks to us. We are to let His Word touch our hearts.
4) God speaks to us through His Word, and we  must seek Him and ask Him to receive answers.God will not leave us alone with doubts and questions but will speak to us.
5) "God" is not a reflection or projection of our own-selves, but is God - divine, superior, transcendent, etc. God speaks to us from the place of the cross of Christ, which is uncomfortable to me (because it demands to me "take up my cross" and "die to self").
6) God shows Himself to us through the Bible by bringing us to the place of the cross, where my own ways and thoughts must end. 

7) We must seek God and let God say what He wants to say to us in Scripture.

Bonhoeffer discovered that he could take a small text from Scripture and meditate on it for a week, listening to what God is saying.

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