In point of fact, we can often use the Bible in ways that stifle spiritual life or even destroy the soul.
Think of the multiplied millions of people who say, sincerely, that the Bible is the guide to life but who still starve to death in the presence of its spiritual feast. This tragic situation is obvious from the usual effects (or lack of effects) that the study of the Bible has in the daily lives of people, even among those who speak most highly of it.
*Richard J. Foster. Life with God.
Psalm 119 extols the beauty and wisdom of the Word of God. The most popular verse from the Psalm reads: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119.105, ESV).
This devotion in the Jewish faith to the Word was adopted by the Church and, eventually, resulted in the Christian Bible. And the Jews, also, moved the Word from inward revelation and the spoken revelation, to writing in a collection called the Tanak. So, the initial living Word, unwritten and orally shared, had a complex, long history toward a canon of Scripture, or Bibles taken to be standards of faith.
This canonization evolved into a direction in which persons lost contact with the inward revelation. The Bible became the end of the Word of God and inspiration, not a means of the Word of God and ongoing revelation.
Richard Foster cites two problems that has led to the misuse of Scripture in Christianity. First, persons studying the Bible for information or knowledge alone. Second, persons use the Bible often to find some formula that will solve the pressing needs of the moment (Life with God).
So, what is wrong with these objectives? Nothing. The Bible provides much helpful information. Gathering knowledge of the Bible is a valid pursuit. Likewise, we are wise to seek for God to speak to us through the Bible about needs in our lives, even through formulas.
So, back to the question: What is wrong with these objectives that are part of the problem of use of the Bible? Nothing in themselves. However, they fail in the highest use of Scripture.
Foster refers to The Immanuel Principle. Immanuel means God with us. So, this Principle refers to life as spiritual life, eternal life, God-life, God-with-us life, what the New Testament refers to has zoe. Scripture, then, becomes a way of being with God and God being with us. In the being-with we receive the inflowing life of Spirit. "Can we," asks Foster, "trust the living water that flows from Christ through the Bible, open ourselves to it and open it into the world as best we can, and then get out of its way?"
Notice, the Bible is not the eternal Word. Christ is the Wisdom of God, the eternal Word.
23 But we preach a crucified Christ. This causes the Jews to stumble and is foolishness to non-Jews. 24 But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks.25 Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
*I Corinthians 1.23-24, NCV
We can conclude two matters. First, the Bible is Spirit-inspired for and within us, and continues to be so, to the extent we receive it revealing the nature, person, and life of the zoe-giving Word, Christ. Scripture is Christoform. For a Christian, the Bible as a whole is the Story of Christ and becomes the Story of Christ.
Second, Christ being the Word, any God-inspired word is of Christ. Therefore, the Bible is to be used along with other means of the Word.
This implies an inner Word. When we open ourselves to be with God through Scripture, the Holy Spirit can inwardly impress upon us a specific Word. This is part of inspiration of Scripture, and this continues in the trusting openness to the Wisdom, to Christ, through the Bible.
So, for utilizing Scripture in spiritual formation, one is open to be being shaped through Scripture in the image of Christ through the Bible.
The ultimate concern in the Bible in spiritual formation is not "What information shall I get from the Bible?" or "How will the Bible address my personal concerns?" The final concern is being with the Divine Presence, so that the Scripture as the inspired external word speaks the inward word, witnessing to the Word-Christ and manifesting the life-transforming Grace of Christ in your heart.
Methods to do this are not within the scope of this writing. Yet, both the Jewish and Christian traditions provide powerful, meditative means for practice of being with God through the use of Scripture.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Southwest Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions, East and West. Brian has an independent writing, workshop, and retreat ministry, for all spiritual seekers.
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