I believe that the Bible is God’s story. A story of love and life, grace and generosity, mercy and madness, warning and wisdom, inspiration and insight. Words just as relevant now as they have always been. Stories that lead us to the good life because they lead us to God. Books that have shaped cultures and cultures that have shaped these books.
Both individuals and communities of individuals determining how to read, interpret and discern these words. Each new generation searching for scriptural significance based on their locale and location in time. Each new generation studying what these Biblical stories mean for their generation. Each new generation seeking hearts afloat with the wisdom of God and hearts awash with the love of God.
As I renew my study of scripture, I’m all too well aware of the disagreements, differences and disputes of beliefs that have arisen among God’s people. I have no doubt that my discernment of scripture might be at odds with the understanding of others. Like Oklahoma, that’s OK.
Because my heart is filled with the love of God, my heart has been humbled. I know that I have truths to learn, and I’ll always be learning the Truth. That’s why I engage with others, study, and meditate on everything that I read. Learning both context and culture to help me better understand the holiest of books.
Securing in knowing that my heart answers only to God because only God can discern my heart. Unafraid when other Bible believers use pride, complacency or fear to condemn others who read scripture differently. In perfect love there is no fear and I’m learning to accept and apply God’s perfect love for myself and all people.
As I read and re-read these prophecies, poems and prose of praise and power, I often think does God still speak to us in our language and in our locality? Did God stop speaking to the Church with the passing of the disciples? Did Jesus stop appearing to others after his encounter with Paul on the road to Damascus? Did the Spirit stop speaking to us once the books of the Bible were canonized?
Intuitively I know that God is still speaking words of wisdom to a weary world. Instinctively I know that God is still sharing his language of love to a wayward world. Innately I know that God is still humbling our hearts, while his stanza of salvation saves our soul from a willful world. God is love and love is eternal, everlasting, and everywhere; even now.
I also believe that God is still speaking to us within and outside of scripture. While scripture is foundational to understanding and knowing God, it’s not the only way we understand and know God. It certainly isn’t the only way we bear witness to God in this world. That happens in loving God and neighbor in thought, word and action.
God’s love is at work in the world, in partnership with scripture, and apart from scripture. The timeless and timely gifts of beauty in both the natural and manmade world, the miracle of birth, the joy of gratitude and generosity that transforms both the giver and receiver, the authority of truth to overcome the obscurity of lies and the blessings in our life that we see when we have the eyes to see them.
God speaks His story still even if we’ve set and structured scripture (while lacking uniformity). Divine inspiration still inspires, God’s guidance still guides, and our Creator continues to create new words to help us understand and know His love for us and all His creation.
Words that become movies, words that become songs and words that become writings. Language that helps us understand God and scripture in our context. Writings that include everything from the early Church fathers to contemporaries like Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton to name a few, and I mean a few. We are blessed to have dozens and dozens of great writers who have written about the glory and greatness of God; treasures waiting to be revealed.
God’s inspiration is also found in Biblical commentaries and study guides. Tools that help us better understand context and connotation in cultures that are very different from our own but universal in conveying God’s consistent and constant calls of love. God is alive.
God still speaks within and outside of scripture. God still speaks within and outside of our hearts. God still speaks because God loves you.
Peace. God loves you.