A King's Copy

Once again, this blog is on life support. Can't skip a month...
Actually, I've had lots of thoughts to blog about--just no discipline to sit and write.

Earlier in October, I was reading a passage from Deuteronomy that struck me. The passage is Deuteronomy 17:14-20. It's a section of the law advising Israel about choosing a king. It also gives direction to future kings.

Verses 18-20 are the ones that impressed me:

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

I've read this before, but I guess I never really noticed it. At the very beginning of his reign, the king was required to re-copy the entire law! He didn't have a servant do it for him; he was to do it himself. Can you imagine how much time that might have taken? Plus, I'm sure it was somewhat expensive. Papyrus wasn't cheap. But the king's knowledge of the law was a priority. It was worth the time, effort, and expense.

After making himself a copy, he was required to keep it with him. He couldn't just forget about it. I wonder if he kept it with him when he met with foreign dignitaries. What about when he went to war?

He was to read it "all the days of his life." It remained a priority. Reminds me of the parable of the sower. So many people today make a good start in the Christian life, but then, when trouble comes, they "stop believing and turn away from God" (Luke 8:13) or "they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life stop them from growing. So they never make good fruit" (Luke 8:14). If we don't make meditation on the Word a priority, life will displace God's ways with its own substitutes.

Also, the king read with a purpose. His reading was to teach him:
1) to revere the Lord
2) to obey the Word faithfully
3) to remain humble
His reading was not just to gain knowledge (informative). It was to shape his heart and his will (formative). I think this requires pondering the word. It means that the king took the law with him spiritually as well as physically. He kept it in his mind, letting it penetrate into his spirit through rumination. Do we do this?

I urge you to make the Bible a priority. Take up the Word. Read it all the days of your life. If we are to reign with Christ, shouldn't we too practice keeping His law with us at all times?

What would recopying a book of the Bible by hand teach us?
I think I may try it.

Soul Enrichment

I've been reading through Joshua Choonmin Kim's Deep-Rooted in Christ: The Way of Transformation this year. Yesterday I read about the value of silence. Since it tied in so well with the previous post, I thought I'd share it. (After all, why blog your own thoughts when you can just report someone else's?!)

Chapter 30 -- Soul Enrichment

One of the obstacles to our spiritual growth is noise. Beware of noise from the outer world. Also guard against the noise that builds up within.

Where does this inner noise come from? Inner noise stems from worry about worldly things. Worldly things produce what is contrary to God (Romans 8:5-6).

The discipline of silence can still the noise of the world. It can turn us from worldly matters to spiritual ones. It is really a form of repentance.

How do our souls grow? Our souls thrive on silence. When does our spirituality build a deeper root system? When we make space for silence. Our souls are enriched by silence; in the quiet they revel and grow.

Take a look at the natural world and you'll see silence at work. Living things grow silently. Trees put down deeper roots without a sound. Trees bear fruit without the slightest noise. In the ocean deep, hardly a sound is heard.

Silence is mystical. Silence teaches us. A child in the mother's womb can't make sounds but grows in silence. Early in the morning when we wake to hear nature in silence, we grasp the deeper meaning of our lives.

Silence is a time to dump the garbage from our souls. Oh yes, it's there! And silence helps us admit our sins, encourages us to get rid of them.

Quietly, we confess our sins to God. As Proverbs says, "No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, / but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

Silence nourishes meditation on the Word. Our souls grow by digesting the Word. As Matthew says in his Gospel, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).

Reading the Word is vital to spiritual growth. When we taste the Word, we feed our souls. But for the souls to grow we must digest God's Word. It is the life blood of our souls. It reaches our souls through the discipline of silence.

In silence the Word takes hold in our hearts. It soaks into our hearts through prayer. Then we understand. As spiritual writer Thomas Moore has said in his book Caring for the Soul, "Through the discipline of silence, we understand and come near the truth."

Understanding links all things together. It connects God and self. It links the past and the present, the present and the future, the present and the eternal until we come to see everything from an eternal vantage point.

Silence is a friend of God. Silence is God's gift to deepen our love and friendship. When we talk a lot, love seems to be absent. But when we come together face to face, we sense a mystical feeling of love.

Be still and know...

God's Word

The Desert Fathers knew something about the importance of God's Word. This quote impressed me:

"Let Your tender word wear a hole in the hardness of our hearts; so as we hear Your word frequently our hearts will be opened to rightly fear God."

Reading the Bible

Two nights ago I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. This may not be anything unusual for many folks, but for me it was a rare experience. Regardless of the circumstances, I have a real knack for being able to sleep. Tuesday night was different. My head was swimming with little details and big details--things I need to do at work and home and...unanswered questions. So, in the middle of the night, I started writing things down. I prayed. And the result of this sleepless bout surprised me.

During this time, I was convicted that I needed to...read my Bible!
What?!
I didn't get any insight about the future, nor did this really solve any of my problems. But I am now super ramped up about reading my Bible through in a year. The funny thing is that although I have two Bible related degrees, I have only read my Bible from cover to cover twice. Only once did I do this in a year's time.

When I think about this in conjunction with the other word from the Lord--"Look to Me"--it fits perfectly. I want God to be my vision. Reading the Bible will keep my focus on Him while allowing Him to speak to me. I feel sure that He will speak. I trust that He will lead.
I'm excited about God and eager to read His Word.

This can be nothing but good.

Thank You, sweet Father!

All Saints' (18) E. Stanley Jones

"Conversion is a gift and and achievement. It is the act of a moment and the work of a lifetime. You cannot attain salvation by disciplines--it is the gift of God. But you cannot retain it without disciplines. If you try to attain salvation by disciplines, you will be trying to discipline an unsurrendered self. You will be sitting on a lid. The result will be tenseness instead of trust. 'You will wrestle instead of nestle.' While salvation cannot be attained by discipline around an unsurrendered self, nevertheless when the self is surrendered to Christ and a new center formed, then you can discipline your life around that new center--Christ. Discipline is the fruit of conversion--not the root.
The passage gives the double-sidedness of conversion: 'As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith' (Col. 2:6-7 RSV). Note, 'received'--receptivity; 'so live'--activity. It appears again, 'rooted'--receptivity, 'built up in him'--activity....The alternate beats of the Christian heart are receptivity and response--receptivity from God and response from us."

"The best Man that ever lived on our planet illustrated this receptivity and response rhythm. No one was so utterly dependent on God and no one was more personally disciplined in his habits.
He did three things by habit: (1) 'He stood up to read as was his custom'--he read the Word of God by habit. (2) 'He went out into the mountain to pray as was his custom'--he prayed by habit. (3) 'He taught them again as was his custom'--he passed on to others by habit what he had and what he had found.
These simple habits were the foundation habits of his life. They are as up-to-date as tomorrow morning. No converted person can live without those habits at work vitally in his life."

-- from Conversion