May I just say, holy smoke. How did it take me so long to read a biography or papers by Dietrich Bonhoeffer? He was truly a man after God's own heart. And truly brilliant. I was reading today, and I don't know if you have ever experienced this before, but I was completely hit square between the eyes by the Holy Spirit. Wow. Since there is no way I can properly do any justice on a commentary of what he said, I'm just going to type it out for you. Here it is, the importance of the Bible and not just reading it, but studying, contemplating, meditating on it:
"First of all I will confess quite simply- I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. that is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength, one has to enquire of him. only if we seek him, will he answer us. Of course it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism, etc.; there is nothing to be said against that. Only that that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love; and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, "pondering them in our heart," so it will be with the words of the Bible."
Many, many people try to understand or see God by reading the Bible. Many people claim to know all about God, know all the right answers, but they have not received it. They cannot see Him, or believe He is there, because they are trying to see God "in their own strength." I love, love, love how Bonhoeffer says, "Only if we seek Him, will he answer us." I have heard several times from people {who do not believe God exists} that they don't see Him, or hear him, so He isn't there. But the Lord God, creator of the Universe, who is waiting to give us the relationship unlike any other, peace unlike any other, joy unlike any other, love, and eternity, is simply waiting to reveal himself upon the asking.
Matthew 7:8
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment