Contemplative Bible Reading

Print this page Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (New International Version) 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. A recent series […]

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Such a simple phrase: the Lord is my shepherd.  It can be the confession of a Christian. I am following God. He is my shepherd. Then comes the question: who are you following? An often heard answer to this question is, “I am going my own way.”  Some argue that no person goes his or […]

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Proverbs 1:19 (New International Version) Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it. I love this phrase, all who go after ill-gotten gain. In an unusual case, the NIV has a more poetic phrase than the King James Version. The King James […]

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John 5:6 (New International Version) When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” What a silly question? Jesus asks a man who had been an invalid for 38 years if he wanted to get well. […]

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John 6:8-9 (New International Version) 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” These verses come from John’s account of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Andrew brings a small amount […]

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John 11:57 (New International Version) But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him. This verse occurs late in the life of Jesus. The Pharisees wanted to arrest Jesus and do away with him. They saw Jesus […]

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1 Chronicles 13:8 (New International Version) David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets. Look at the title of this post. I would think the verse was talking about a battle with an enemy army or building the temple or […]

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Psalms 64:1 (New International Version) Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy. Several weeks ago I read the above verse in a Bible class. I read it again just this morning. I paraphrase this as God, listen to me complain. What a request! How […]

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Proverbs 20:17 (New International Version) Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel. Ouch! How does that feel? A mouth full of gravel. The Bible contains great literature and some great phrases – this is one of the many in Proverbs. Literature aside, this […]

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2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. All Scripture is God-breathed. Paul is writing about what we know as the Old Testament. Sometimes I assume that the New […]

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