Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 16:7 (New English Translation)

For I (Paul) do not want to see you now in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

Notice Paul’s concluding phrase – if the Lord allows.

Surely God would allow a missionary to visit a church in a foreign land. Surely, that is part of God’s plan. Surely?

I don’t know; Paul didn’t know, and none of us knows. We are man, and God is God. He has His own plans, and I don’t pretend to understand them. At least on one of those days when I realize my place in His creation. It is unfortunate that I have a lot of days when I overestimate my place in His creation. God, help me to reduce those bad days.

Luke 24:16 (New Living Translation)

But God kept them from recognizing him (Jesus).

This is from the (hi)story of the men walking to Emmaus with Jesus. They didn’t recognize Jesus. From this verse, God prevented them from recognizing Jesus.

Does God do the same today? Does Jesus walk among us from time to time, but we don’t recognize Him because God the Father prevents it?

I’m just asking the questions. I don’t have the answers.

I do believe that angels come among us, but we rarely if ever recognize them. I can’t prove it, but given the frequency that angels visit people as recorded in the Bible, I believe it still happens.

Acts 2:13 (New Living Translation)

But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

Combine this verse with this phrase from verse 7:

These people are all from Galilee

Why of course. People from Galilee are always drunk in the middle of the morning. They must be the 33 A.D. equivalent of fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorite-group-from-a-geographic-area-to-denigrate.

Funny how the cosmopolitan of the day viewed Galilee. Recall that most of the close followers of Jesus and Jesus himself were from that region.

2 Timothy 4:5 (New Living Translation)

But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.

The first phrase of this verse appeals to the tough-minded thinkers. It doesn’t appeal to the emotional types in the Myers-Briggs type indicator or whatever preference indicator tool you use.

Being one of those tough-minder thinkers, let me explain…us tough-minded thinkers love to explain, but we don’t like to admit it (or use words like “love” and “like”).

Be that as it may, this phrase begins with “But,” which means we might look back at the prior sentence or two. This section of the letter is discussing people who will do all sorts of things and teach all sorts of things. Keep a clear mind. Try to understand what is happening and what is being taught. Does it vary from the Good News which we are encouraged to tell others? That is a simple question, but in the face of a ground swell of false teaching and followers of the like, it isn’t always easy to answer.

Keep a clear mind and pray.

Ephesians 5:6 (New Living Translation)

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.

Sin has no excuse. What? But what about…? No, not even that.

This verse refers to a list of sins given before it. Basically, this part of the Ephesian letter discusses living in the light or not. The not part is sin, and it has not excuse.

2 Timothy 2 (New Living Translation)

16 – Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.

23 – Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.

Years ago I head an expression, “Don’t argue with dead people.” Such arguments waste time and only tend to raise your blood pressure and reduce you thinking.

These two verses remind me of that “arguing with dead people” advice.

Here are some questions that we could argue foolishly (and some possible argument-avoiding answers).

• How can a loving God allow… I don’t know. God is far beyond me, and I can’t explain Him.
• How can you get off judging people who... I can’t. God is the judge. I’m just trying to understand what He has passed along to us through the Bible.

And of course:

• How many angels can rest on the head of a pin? As many as God put there.

If these answers aren’t enough, always try, “I don’t want to talk about that today, thank you.” And then smile. And then do something for the other person in a loving manner like offering them a cool drink of water.

Hebrews 11:27 (New Living Translation)

It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

This is one of those things in the Bible that doesn’t make any sense to us. Moses kept his eyes on the invisible God. That is a contradiction in terms, the kind of thing that would pull red ink from the pen of an English teacher while reading papers from teenagers.

Yet this is part of the essence of Christianity. We cannot see our Lord.

We can, however, see the lives lived by His followers. That defines much of our duty as Christians – to be what is seen by people with their eyes, to be the visible piece of an invisible God.

Colossians 4:6

New Living Translation – Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

New International Version – Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I love this verse. I have taught three-month classes about what this verse means. This year I am reading the New Living Translation of the Bible. I took note of this verse. A few days later it hit me, “that is the seasoned with salt verse.” I love this verse.

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,