For the past few weeks, I've intentionally stepped away from some things in my life that, though good things, were demanding so much of my time that I was loosing touch with other things in my life that are critically important. In particular, over the last two years, there has been a tendency in my life to forget the importance of Psalm 46:10 - "Be still, and know that I am God." God became real to me, on a deeper, personal level, in the early 1990's. But around 1997-98, God really showed me the connection between prayer and the scriptures through a way of reading the Bible called "lectio divina." Lectio Divina is Latin for "Holy Reading." There really isn't anything magical about all of this, but there is mystery - the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And our Bible - words written some 2000 years ago - have meaning and relevance for our lives today. But I have to listen; I have to hear God speak through His Word. Duffy Robbins says that "lectio divina is about creating the space and time for God to speak to us."
So, I'm intentionally making the effort to give time to this holy reading. And I've been confirmed in this through the words of Brennan Manning, in his tremendous book The Ragamuffin Gospel, where Manning writes:
"The Word we study has to be the Word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching him to help me understand with my head and heart his written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited."
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