Missing the Word
As I suspect is true of too many of my fellow Christian' lives, just
as it is in mine, there are times when we do not read the Bible as regularly,
as frequently or as much as we really should. I realized as soon as I wrote
that title though that it could also lead to a misunderstanding and not really
convey what I am discussing here. I am not just referring to reading words on a
page in the book; I am talking about missing fellowship with God, our Heavenly
Father, that occurs when we read the Bible, The Word. That is the ultimate
point of the Bible, communion with God. In reading it, we open ourselves to
further communication through the Holy Spirit, as we are enlightened about what
we read by the very same Person that we believe inspired the writing to begin
with (John 14:26; 15:26).
My understanding of how we as Christians view the Bible is that it
is an inspired record that God has given us to show us how he is at work in his
creation, particularly on earth and in the lives of humans. We do not regard it
in the same way as I understand the Orthodox teaching of the Muslim is about
the Koran, namely that every word is sacred in Arabic as it is written and
therefore can never be altered. They
believe this because the belief is that the entire document was given in this
form to the original Prophet Muhammad over a period of time in the early 7th
century CE. That is why you will find orthodox Muslim scholars even discounting
the study of the Koran in different languages. Some of them therefore then also
have difficulty with we Christians who have the Bible that has come down
through so many languages, translations and copies. They don't believe that we
can have a believable record anymore.
The first Bible delivered to me as my very own copy of this The Word
of God was a King James Version, which was the only form known to most
English-speaking Christians at the time (I am referring to the early 1950s). I
believe it was a 7th birthday gift. I read that through, although not
immediately of course. While attending Canadian Mennonite Bible College in the
mid-60s, I purchased the version used for the most part there, the Revised
Standard Version, and read that in its entirety. A few years later, when the
New English Bible came out, I read all of it. I have read the Bible from
cover-to-cover several more times since then. Now I have begun to read a
“Green” edition of the New Revised Standard Version. This is a special version
that highlights everything in the Scriptures that has to do, according to its
editors, with creation and the environment. I had just before this, for the
first time ever, purchased a study Bible, in the form of the Harper Collins
Study Bible, which is another New Revised Standard Version translation. I had
not really felt much of a need for this type of Bible previously because even
my very first Bible had cross-references, a concordance and other such study
helps that served me well over the years.
So, I have read through The Word a number of times. I have studied
it from when I was an elementary age Sunday School student until the present
time. I have taught it to Sunday school classes, led small groups in its study
and preached sermons based on it. When I was about 12-years-of age, I remember
wanting to read it diligently to discover all the rules I could to live the
proper life of a Christian.
However, I must confess that it was not until I was almost
middle-aged that I reached the point where the desire to read the Bible came
from somewhere inside of me, not because of that external compulsion that this
was something a Christian should do. To me, this could only have happened
because of having reached a certain degree of maturity as a Christian, having
come to the point in my relationship with God were I really wanted to keep in
touch with Him through His Word. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit prompting me
to keep up my communion with God.
