Day 11 of Lent

I apologize for not writing more as I have been going through this journey in observance of Lent. Since my last post I have read Ezra, the Gospel of John, and staying with John, I read all three letters from John. I'm thinking next I'll read Revelation but that will have to wait until tomorrow for that determination.

It has been rather fascinating keeping to this commitment to read a book each day. I must confess though that I did split the Gospel into 2 days. I haven't been writing as much because I found that as I was reading I was thinking about what I would be writing. That preacher's occupational hazard kept creeping around. So, I decided to stop writing. As you can see, I won't be stopping entirely but it isn't going to be an everyday item.

I do find that the time in just reading, for no other purpose than to hear from God and to spend that time with Him, is deeply satisfying to the soul. I am finding that by reading that whole book, without effort to dissect it and outline it for a sermon, allows for the personality of the book, the character of the book, to infiltrate my heart and my mind. Obviously, I believe strongly in Bible study of the sort where one works to understand and properly interpret even a single verse or perhaps a phrase. This reading of the whole book though, again with the intention of just enjoying His Word, allows for a connection with the heart and mind that causes one to be able to say, "I understand." I may not know everything, for example when reading Ezra, unless you have some good study notes or commentary you may not know who the various kings are in the story and how each one relates to the story or you may not know the time line of the story that well. However, I believe that reading the book through, just to hear it, allows for one to walk away and understand why God has this book in His Scriptures. It isn't just something you now have mental knowledge of, instead it is something that you know, in your heart and in your mind, and it is now part of you.