Day Ninety -- Days of Grace (2 of 2)
Here we are on the final day of our challenge to read the Bible cover-to-cover in 90 days. As a minister of the Gospel I was particularly delighted that so many people answered the call to join me in this endeavor. Prior to our beginning I had several people say that it seemed too overwhelming and mentioned that they might just read the New Testament instead of the whole Bible. I encouraged them come along on the entire journey and hope they heeded my advice, for the Good News of Jesus Christ shines ever more brightly in the light of the complete biblical narrative.
As a Christian it is fair to say that I was on more familiar ground as we read through the New Testament. What was different, however, was having the full sweep of the Old Testament still fresh in my mind as I read the accounts of Jesus and the early Christian communities. I more clearly heard the echo of the salvation story from one age to the next. "Old" and "New" are not so much separate Testaments but rather the first two chapters of humanity's relationship with God. The third chapter, I'll call it the "Living" Testament, is the one in which we dwell. It is the one in which we act and proclaim the ever widening, ever surprising, ever challenging call to be followers of Jesus Christ in the circumstances of our own day. This Living Testament is the record that we will leave behind of how true we were to the ways of God, how boldly we acted in the face of prejudice and evil, how far we were willing to go to speak for the voiceless and to stand with the powerless.
In other words, reading the Bible is one thing; taking it into our hearts and living it out is quite another thing. If we are merely hearers of the word and not doers, this effort has been an empty exercise. May we all be humbled by what we have completed, but pray that God will open us up to new springs of faith and holy living.
This is just the beginning...
As a Christian it is fair to say that I was on more familiar ground as we read through the New Testament. What was different, however, was having the full sweep of the Old Testament still fresh in my mind as I read the accounts of Jesus and the early Christian communities. I more clearly heard the echo of the salvation story from one age to the next. "Old" and "New" are not so much separate Testaments but rather the first two chapters of humanity's relationship with God. The third chapter, I'll call it the "Living" Testament, is the one in which we dwell. It is the one in which we act and proclaim the ever widening, ever surprising, ever challenging call to be followers of Jesus Christ in the circumstances of our own day. This Living Testament is the record that we will leave behind of how true we were to the ways of God, how boldly we acted in the face of prejudice and evil, how far we were willing to go to speak for the voiceless and to stand with the powerless.
In other words, reading the Bible is one thing; taking it into our hearts and living it out is quite another thing. If we are merely hearers of the word and not doers, this effort has been an empty exercise. May we all be humbled by what we have completed, but pray that God will open us up to new springs of faith and holy living.
This is just the beginning...
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