The Bible was written for the heart, as well as for the mind and the will.
It was written for us. It can enlighten, enable, enrich and encourage us, if we will let it.
We may read the Bible in so many ways, through its divine teachings or as the purest literature we have in the English language; if not a compendium of information on suffering, struggling, rejoicing of human nature.
Our knowledge of the Bible was limited to memorizing the Beatitudes and Psalms, and parts of the Songs of Solomon.
My mother required me to memorize those parts of the Bible, which she considered the most beautiful and poetic. It was to assuage my undying thirst for stories.
I have been reading the Bible faithfully ever since I became a Christian in 1994. Since then, I’ve learned that devotional comments of the Scripture is not the meal, but the menu which describes the meal.
It’s not the road but the signal lights that help point the way. Bible knowledge alone is not spiritual nutrition.
Today, anyone who has read the Bible knows there is not a better source for story than its vast collection of verse and prose; song and lamentations; love and death; sin and punishment.
All have same stories in common with other scriptures, whenever they are found.
The Virgin Birth is not unique to Christianity and loses nothing of its importance.
The story of the great flood tells of how the Lord smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s offering and that He was pleased with what was in this good man’s heart.
He vowed he would never again curse the ground, or punish man, or destroy all life on Earth. Then, he caused a great arc of lovely colors to vault the sky, as a token of the vow between them — the rainbow.
Grateful parents, Antonio and Jocelyn Padernal, with the dedicated baby.
The Bible also tells of David, the singing shepherd boy, who was to be the mighty king of Israel. From David’s family came the Saviour of Mankind, a baby born from Bethlehem.
Ruth, the kind Moabite woman, who believed in the God of Israel, gave life to an Israelite family that led down through the years to Mary, Joseph and the gentle Jesus.
From a city named Babel, where a tower was built and where the lord confused the language of all the earth, people were scattered to the far corners of the earth — to form separate nations, each with a language of its own. Their pride is sufficient sin.
At the Sermon on the Mount, people were astonished at the word, for He taught them with authority, unlike the old scribes who quoted the old laws.
“Love your enemies, Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Turn the other cheek.”
These ideas that were new to them, unlike the preachings of the Pharisees. The sayings of Jesus truly sounded as though they were the wonder of a merciful and loving God.
And there’s a lot more…
The Bible is a whole library of many books within a single volume — a huge repository of history, law, religion, poetry and philosophy used either for information, comfort, inspiration or for sheer reading pleasure.
It has the length of smoothly flowering narratives and the complexity of its nearly one million words: inspired words of God in a written documents.
It’s a form of literary expression, of marvelous and stirring events linked to divine will and purpose — compelling tales of men and women, caught up in a courageous effort to live good and godly lives.
A Blessed Easter to one and all.
