February 18

There is an unfortunate thing that happens to some of us when we are in seminary...  We sometimes get so caught up in talking ABOUT God that we forget to talk TO God.  We spend a lot of time reading ABOUT God's word, but forget to read it for ourselves.

I find myself falling into this trap myself.  We talk so much about how to help people in their relationships with God in classes, that I just assume that I'm doing well myself.  I realized the other day that I hadn't picked up my bible outside of class and church in a few weeks.  I hate when that happens.

And then yesterday, I actually woke up at 7:30 when my alarm starts going off.  I showered, and then spent about an hour reading the Gospel of Mark.  And it was amazing.  And God is able to speak through the Bible, and Jesus is able to come alive in a way that reading about Jesus doesn't quite fill.

John Wesley's journal entry for February 18, 1743 addresses a similar issue.  Wesley writes:

I rode forward to Newcastle.  We inquired at Poplington, a little town three miles beyond York, and hearing there was no other town near, thought it best to call there.  A Bible lying in the window, my fellow-traveller asked the woman of the house, if she read that book.  She said, "Sir, I can't read; the worse is my luck.  But that great girl is a rare scholar; and yet she cares not if she ever looks at a book; --she minds nought but play."

Perhaps many people can relate to this girl.  She knows how to read, and is quite smart, but she just never gets around to really delving into the Word.  Other things always come up - Maybe things that are more "fun" or more "important," or perhaps we just forget.  The Bible, then, continues to sit on windowsill, or on a shelf, gathering dust as it remains unopened.

But just because we fail to open our bibles and read, it doesn't mean that we don't have a hunger for the Word.  Wesley goes on:

I began soon after to speak to our landlord, while the old woman drew closer and closer to me.  The [great] girl spun on; but all on a sudden she stopped her wheel, burst out into tears, and, with all that were in the house, so devoured our words, that we scarce knew how to go away.

I hunger for the Word of God.  I sometimes deliver the Word of God, I read the Word of God...  But I don't think that you can ever get enough of the Word of God.  Wesley advocated "searching the Scriptures" as one of the three chief Means of Grace:

The chief of these means [of grace] are prayer, whether in secret or with the great congregation; searching the Scriptures; (which implies reading, hearing, and meditating thereon;) and receiving the Lord's supper, eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of Him: And these we believe to be ordained of God, as the ordinary channels of conveying his grace to the souls of men.  (Sermon XVI: The Means of Grace)

Through regularly reading, hearing, and meditating on the Word of God, we receive God's grace!

I am going to be intentional about making reading the Scriptures a regular part of my devotional life, and not just my academic life.

Will you join me?