A concrete suggestion to aid us in preparing for eternal fellowship with Abba: we need to read the Bible Abba-centrically, or "Father-centered." Christians sometimes read the Bible too often to "figure things out," to come to terms with a theological debate, or to settle an old score. They read it for information.
But as M. Robert Mulholland explains in his very important book, Shaped by the Word, in reading the Bible for knowledge, we can (and often do) miss the mission: for Abba to love us and for us to love Abba. When we let Abba speak to us through the Bible, we come to know him (and not just about him), and our reading moves from communication from God to communication with God, from "information to formation," from learning about love to learning to love.
Good stuff. Scot suggests putting away the study aids, getting out a piece of paper and a pen, and just writing down what we learn about God in a passage of Scripture (not that there isn't a time and place for study aids). This is kind of what we're currently doing on Wednesday nights in our Group Lectio Divina - except we're sharing verbally with one another instead of writing it down. I kinda like it.
6 comments:
I don't mean to say this post is irrelevant but I just keep thinking about the crush I had on Anni-Frid when I was 13 years old.
I like what we are going to be doing on Wednesday nights, too. Sometimes I think people tend to study the Bible so they can quote it and sound smart instead of reading the Bible to hear what God has to say to us.
amen to that.
Tom,
I forgot to tell you.... I have no idea what your comment means. :)
And I will add another amen to MR's amen to Jah's comment. I agree that this is the beauty of the exercise.
Thanks for the comments, folks.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad was one of the women in the band ABBA. Yes, I will admit that I listened to ABBA when I was a young teen. I was in boarding school at the time with a couple of kids from Denmark who thought they were the greatest thing this side of sliced bread.
Hi Kimmy,
I hear your husband is a real pain. :)
Ohhh, that would explain a lot. I didn't know who Anni-Frid was, and... You listened to ABBA!?!
Actually, if this is confession time, the very first cassette tape I bought was Olivia Newton John. Whew, glad I got that off my chest.
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