Cross That Stream When We Get There     (April 1,2018)

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          There is a reason [perhaps even two] why people don’t read Scripture consistently. Scripture is strange—that is, it originated from and was addressed to far-away, unfamiliar times and places. As a result, when we first begin to read it, much of it sounds unfamiliar...even incomprehensible; people assume unlocking its mysteries must involve special techniques or esoteric knowledge they do not possess. So, they stay away from it, thus insuring they’ll never be “familiar” with it. They do not read it because they think they do not and cannot understand it.

          On the other extreme are people who don’t bother reading Scripture because they think they do understand it. These people have heard Scripture so often that they think to themselves, “I don’t need to read it again. I already know what it says.” And so, even when they read the Scriptures, they don’t really read the Scriptures! Instead, they read to reinforce the same old prejudices and conclusions they have previously reached, over and over, again and again, reconfirming to themselves what they think they already know.

          These extremes demonstrate why it is important for us to publicly and personally commit to continuous consecutive readings of Scripture, for the truth is, you never know when you just might learn something! It’s like attendance in school: no doubt the teachers among us would confirm that they cannot guarantee everyone who is present in class on any particular day will learn something on that day. However, one thing they can guarantee. They can be absolutely certain that those who are not there will certainly not learn on that particular day. You must at least be present to hear the lesson and then, who knows? Being present, you might just learn something! So too we need to “be present” by daily Bible reading and interacting with God’s word.

          The philosopher Heraclitus observed that it is impossible to step into the same stream twice. He reasoned that since a stream is constantly flowing, it is constantly changing and since the stream is constantly changing one cannot, in a literal sense, enter the same stream twice. Well, this applies to reading Scripture as well. We, too, are never the same when we read Scripture. The constant flow of new experiences, new information and even our changing moods insure we are, in many ways, not the same person who read a passage the last time we encountered it. At the very least we are not in the same state of mind. So even though Scripture never changes, we do. Therefore, although Scripture has one original meaning, it has a seemingly infinite number of applications and lessons to teach us. So as long as we are growing spiritually we can read the word from a fresh perspective—and grow in our understanding of what the apostle Paul told us in Ephesians chapter five about Christ's sanctifying and cleansing of the church. It is “...by the washing of water with the word.” (Ephesians 5:26)