Scripture

We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:18-19

This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles. 1 Peter 3:1-2

Observation
Yesterday I stood in front of an ancient Torah scroll at a Jewish Synagogue hidden in the basement of the US Air Force Academy Chapel. The scroll was several centuries old. Hand-lettered vellum showed the endless rows of Hebrew consonants without word spacings, punctuation or even chapter and verse numbers. I explained to the person with me that this was the Bible of the early Church. The Old Testament was the Bible that Peter preached from and his would have looked very much like the one my eyes were scanning.

After not only walking with Jesus but seeing for a few seconds on earth how Jesus appears now in heaven, Peter nevertheless pointed early Christians back to the Bible. In fact Peter knew as he wrote these words that he was soon to die. Second Peter is in essence his last will and testament. He will not be there to guide the fledgling churches. So what instruction does he give? Simple: read the Bible.

What should happen as we read the Bible? Our minds should first be stimulated to think better thoughts. Without the Bible we spiral downward into trivia, gossip, grumbling, or even worse the news. But with the Scriptures our minds will spark with wholesome thoughts that have a life of their own because they originate in God. We also read the Bible secondly to refresh our minds. The Bible is not a book we can simply say we’ve read before because reading it is not enough. Are we doing what it says? We read and re-read the Bible not always to learn new things but to remember what we’ve forgotten to do.

Application
Christians gathering together to talk about how their lives will be different because of what they have read is the most significant thing we can do this side of seeing Jesus with our own eyes. Everything flows out of that.

Prayer
Father, I am listening. Amen.