It’s a pretty good thing when the Foreward to a book, written by someone other than the book’s author, causes you to stop in your tracks after being hit in the face with an undeniable truth. That happened this afternoon immediately after I sliced open a package that had been left at my front door. Inside were two copies of Rut Etheridge’s book, God Breathed: Connecting Through Scripture to God, Others, the Natural World, and Yourself. Rut had sent me a pdf of the book a few months back, and it’s just now that I was able to carve out some time to begin reading it. As always, I wanted a hard copy!
With the book in hand, I thought I would use my lunch hour to read the book’s endorsements and four-page foreward. Written by musician Lacey Sturm, the foreward tells enough of her own personal story to remind and reignite in me a sense of the gift that God’s Word is, and the power that it holds. These words should spark doxological thoughts for you, as they do for me. . .
“Whenever I find truth in any place I immediately know that it is guaranteed to be a biblical principle in display. As a smart aleck atheist who met God on the day I planned to commit suicide, I was not one to take people’s word for what they said about God. I wanted to know for myself. What I found in the Bible when I read it for myself was staggering. In the Bible I found Truth. The most profound, living, mind-blowing truth after truth after truth. I have always been a lover of truth. To find that the Bible was a book of truth was crazy enough, but then to find that it was alive and word-for-word breathed from the mouth of God, words which God intended for me to read and understand and learn so I could actually know Him – are you serious?! This is still absolutely astounding to me.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want to lose that same sense of wonder and awe over rich and endless truths that continue to pour forth from the bottomless treasure chest of Scripture. Where else can I turn?
Early on this morning, I began my day where I always do. I went down to my basement study to sit my desk with daily readings and prayers, all the while facing two bulletin boards covered in reminders from Scripture and several of my spiritual forbearers. I happened to glance over at a scribbled reminder that’s been on that bulletin board for several years. . . a reminder that really set me up for today. The little yellow post-it note, so old that it has to be pinned now that it’s no longer sticky, offers up a couple imperatives written to myself. Both of them are reminders regarding my daily approach to the Bible.
First, how to read the Bible: 1) Read it regularly. 2) Read it right. 3) Read it repititiously.
Those three reminders about how to read the Bible have served me well. I need to understand and apply what it really says, not what I think it says or want it to say.
Second, there are four prayers I pray whenever approaching my open Bible:
Lord, show me You. Who are You and what is Your character?
Lord, show me me. What does it mean to be a human being in Your economy? . . . even a sinful and fallen human being?
Lord, show me your plan for me. Not only Your specific will for my life. . . I do need that. But what is Your general will and way for Your people?
Lord, show me the enemy’s schemes and methods for undoing me. Help me to develop skills in discernment. . . leading to increased wisdom so that I might recognize my default settings to sin in an effort, by Your help, to resist the devil.
And so, I will be heading home soon. . . encouraged by Lacey Sturm’s story and reminder. . . and I will begin reading Rut’s book.
Thanks be to God for the gift of His Word!
May I suggest a couple of helpful resources?
How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth
How to Read the Bible Book by Book
The Word in Youth Ministry Podcast