The
Apostle Paul informs us that the Word of God is certainly not a commodity to be
bought or sold. After Paul left the city
of Corinth to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to other places, the small house
church in the massive city was invaded by false prophets who puffed themselves
up with pride, claiming to be super apostles.
In response, Paul penned a second letter to the Corinthian believers,
encouraging them to reject false teachings and embrace grace. Paul boldly spills ink on the page: "Unlike
so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in
Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." (2nd Corinthians
2:17, NIV)
Sent
from God, we enter the prison in Newton to speak the Word of God with
sincerity. In doing so we steer clear of
peddling the word as if it were yet another commercial product in the
marketplace. Instead we provide the Word
of God not as something to be achieved but as God's gift to be received. Numerous resources are available at no cost
to the men in prison. For example,
various Bibles are available for free, including outreach Bibles, Spanish
Bibles, large print Bibles, the One Year Bible and pocket-size New
Testaments. In addition, devotional
booklets such as Today and Our Daily Bread are always available in
the prison chapel. Lately we've been
blessed with boxes of books like Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His
Presence by Sarah Young and Doing His Time: Meditations and Prayers for
Men and Women in Prison by James Vogelzang.
Last week, however, I found out that all these resources can present a
problem of overwhelming the diligent ones with even more words. One of the men at the prison shared with me
his lengthy list of daily readings. It
looked less like grace and more like a burden.
I wondered out loud with him if there are times when more isn't always
better. Perhaps there could be some way
to focus on quality instead of quantity.
This
week we'll restore our focus on the Word of God by providing a class on the
ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina,
which means "divine reading."
Avoiding excessive quantities of Scripture, Lectio Divina slows you down so you can hear
a message from God's Word. The class in
our prison Bible study will present the four step process of reflective
reading, patient meditation, conversational prayer, and restful
contemplation. You may already be aware
of Lectio as a valuable spiritual practice that allows you to practice the
presence of God. May the New Year give
you numerous opportunities to prayerfully read the Bible. May you flee from the many words of the
marketplace to a place where only God's Word of grace remains.
