Theme of the Week: Reset Boundaries (Recharge)
Bible Verse: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life”. John 5:39-40
Scripture Reading: Joshua 1:1-9
When I first became a follower of Christ as a teenager, even though I generally hated reading, I found that I had an enormous hunger for Scripture.
I began to meditate on passages in the Word and even memorized parts of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 – 7) and 1 John. As I spent time reading the Bible, my faith in God grew stronger.
A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God says, “The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men [and women] to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself is the core and center of their hearts.”
Jesus said to the religious elite of his day, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39 – 40, emphasis added).
The ultimate end of Scripture is not the text itself but an intimate, joyful, nourishing friendship with the living God. The written Word helps us encounter and unite with the living God.
My own practice of meditating on the Word is simple. In the morning, over a bowl of cereal, I put on my headphones, turn on my iPhone, and begin to listen to a selection of Scripture. In the summer I walk up Little Mountain, a hill not far from our home, or go to a nearby beach and listen to the Psalms or a passage in the Gospels. If something speaks to me, I’ll pause the Scripture on my iPhone, scroll the text back, and replay it a few times. I will reflect on it and pray over it.
Taken from God In My Everything by Ken Shigematsu. Copyright ©2013 by Ken Shigematsu. Used by permission of Zondervan.
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