Consider what it might mean if the following assumptions are true.
God is real.
God does care about what is going on in this creation.
God does call particular people as part of God’s acts in time.
You are one of those whom God has called.
God desires to communicate with those whom God has called.
If you take those statements as true, then how does God communicate with you? Or, to put it another way, how do you listen to God?
Each of the above is part of a classic understanding to faith and in some form or another you have probably taught or preached such truths to believers. The question I am raising is what if you accepted those truths as personally true for you.
Let’s make the further assumption that Scripture is one of the gifts God has provided through which God can speak to you. How do you read Scripture in a manner that allows you to listen to God personally addressing you? Further, how do you do that without making Scripture your personal magic box and rather allows it to be God’s vehicle by which God can both challenge and inspire you?
Of course God can speak to you through a variety of means but if God has particularly provided Scripture as a means of bridging the gap between the eternal and the human, how do you understand how to avail yourself of that possibility?
SMcCutchan