Meditations

Since I read Richard Foster's Streams of Living Water I have been mulling over the status that the Church sometimes gives to God's Word - the Bible - and the Word of God - Jesus. Sometimes the Bible becomes the focus of our worship and we accord it more value than Jesus himself.

This same theme has come up in the book that I am reading at the moment: "The Way in is the Way on". Christy Wimber has collected together John Wimber's teachings on life in Christ. He made the comment that the Bible is the menu and Jesus is the main course. The Bible tells us about the loving relationship that God wants to have with us through Jesus. It is Jesus that we worship. Our calling as followers of Jesus is to value the Bible, meditate on it, conserve it and tell others about it so that we can come into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I know that in my own life I have spent more time reading the Bible and listening to teaching when perhaps the more fruitful thing to do may be to spend time in silent contemplation or prayer. You cannot have a relationship with someone if all you ever do is read letters from them or about them or listen to other people talk about them or tell you about what they have done.

I think that over the last few months God has been trying to knock off a few of my hard edges. If he was anything less than totally gracious and compassionate he would be getting as frustrated as I am at my thick-headed lack of progress. When I get into one of my sullen and stubborn moods I get very fed up with myself and angry with God - why hasn't he changed me yet and "renewed my mind" - and made me an altogether better more loving person? I am learning that I will be fed up for a very long time if I keep hanging around waiting for something in me to change magically. I know when I am behaving in a way that is wrong and hurtful to those around me and to God. Dying to self and living for God is about recognising that, and choosing not to do it even though it may mean giving up a rather comfortable hermit-like sulk in order to be humble and loving.