Contemplative Bible Reading

Hebrews 12:15 (New Living Translation)

Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.

Here is some stark poetry – the poisonous root of bitterness growing up to trouble us. To me, this verse is talking about the group of us, the church, the congregation. Bitterness can grow among us – the church. The result is that many of us are corrupted.

To be bitter is to hold onto hate, to let it fester for a long time. A wound that has festered becomes poisoned.

That is an awful picture. This is an awful situation that affects us today as much as it did some 20 centuries ago. As the passage says,

watch out.

1 Peter 3:10-12 (New Living Translation)

¹⁰ For the Scriptures say,

Ecclesiastes 5:19 (New Living Translation)

And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.

I slowly read the book of Ecclesiastes recently. This is the theme I found (reading it this time, next year may be different):

Enjoy what God gives us

God gives us food, drink, work, and many other things. Question:

Do I enjoy, recognize, and give thanks for what I have everyday?

The answer is, probably not. I am too busy, too tired, too whatever. I need to get straight on this part of my life – today. I am sitting in a comfortable chair at a computer typing words and I am enjoying it. That is a gift from God and I thank God for it.

Now if I can just keep doing this. Please help me God and forgive me when I fail.

Colossians 4:2 (New Living Translation)

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Notice how we are to pray: with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Both the heart and the mind are involved. We can’t be all mindful – all analytical. We can’t be all heart – all feeling. We need to be both.

Hebrews 12:14 (New Living Translation)

Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.

It isn’t easy to be at peace with people; it isn’t easy living a holy life for God. If it were easy, why would the writer here encourage us to work at it?

There is (at least) one problem with this working at things every day – fatigue. I am tired most days. I’m tired of this and tired of that and tired from a bad night’s sleep. And God is asking me to work at yet one more thing?

Yes, He is and yes, He has given me what I need to do it. And He has given me a reward that is thousands of times worth the effort. Thanks God.

This post is a bit different from the usual. It is about the printed word in English and the disappearance of God from it.

Google has been digitizing books for several years. This has been a controversial program with current authors and copyright holders. If, however, we forget the current market and look back a few hundred years, Google is doing us all a big favor.

One researcher has used the Google-digitized books to examine what people have written since about 1500. See here.

From 1520, the most used three-word phrases include:

• of the pope
• of the church
• the Holy scriptures
• of God and

From 2006:

• nothing that even hints at God or a church

I am sure we can explain the disappearance of God from the printed word. For example, back in the 1500s the only organization who had the money to publish a book was “the church.” Today, anyone can publish a book.

Then again, perhaps there is something else happening here.

Ecclesiastes 11:9 (New Living Translation)

Young people, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.

We live with God; we all live with God, even though of us who deny God exists.

This verse reminds the young that they too live with God. God wants the young to enjoy their youth. He wants them to remember that they live with God while doing so.

It is pretty easy to find verses that remind the not-young that God wants us to enjoy the life He gives us. He wants us to remember that we live with God.

This isn’t complex.  It is, however, profound.

This post is a little different from the norm. Read the following:

“Everything is meaningless,” says the writer, “completely meaningless!”

What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.  The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.  Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.  We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.

I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered a tragic existence to the human race. I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.

What is wrong cannot be made right.
What is missing cannot be recovered.

I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.

Ephesians 4:31-32 (New Living Translation)

³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. ³² Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

These verses describe the choice of living in the light or in the dark. Verse 31 describes the dark and verse 32 the light.

I know people whose lives are described by verse 31. They are not happy people. Drugs and addictive behavior mask their lives. They try to fool themselves into a happy life. Sometimes they succeed and raise their heads above the muck and proclaim, “What? I’m not hurting anyone.”

Then there are people who live in the light. They don’t live in any Pollyana world; they have troubles like everyone. After all, they live in a world of sin. Still, their lives are far more positive than those in the dark.

The choice is pretty simple. Sometimes I don’t know how we choose the darkness, but that is part of the human condition.

Ephesians 4:20-24 (New Living Translation)

²⁰ But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. ²¹ Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, ²² throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. ²³ Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. ²⁴ Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Focus on the end of verse 22. In part, our old sinful nature was corrupted by deception.

We have been renewed to by like Christ. One way that we have been renewed is through truth.  God has not deceived us in any way. God has not told little white lies or engaged in “spin” to wiggle around with words and actions.

Deception is the tool of the other side; deception is prevalent in the world that rejects God. Here are a few things that come from deception:

• lying
• stealing
• cheating on your spouse
• cheating on your employer
• cheating your employee
• withholding a tip from a waitress/waiter
• murdering someone
• cheating on your taxes

I could continue. What’s the use? We can trace almost any sin to being deceptive. Deception is gone now and we shall never return to it.