Daily Office Reading for Monday of Proper 3; Year 2
Morning, Psalm 25; Evening, Psalm 9 and 15;
Proverbs 10:1 to12; 1st Timothy; 1:1-17; Matthew 12:22 to 32:
“Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.”( From Psalm 25)
Much, if not most of what I have learned about God has come from the Bible; that is, words. And even now I reflect on words from a Psalm. But these words asks God to show and to teach. Showing and teaching is not necessarily writing. It is being in me to lead and to guide me.
For the Bible, the saying is true, “You can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” There is so much good in the words of the Bible, but, there are words of death and destruction and even some evil spirits said to be from God. I don’t accept this. While I do believe that the Bible contains all that is necessary for our salvation, I don’t believe that everything in it is necessary for salvation.
The Bible has been written in many old and now dead languages. Through translations and some misunderstandings, we read, and pray, and ponder, and glean what we can that is good and righteous.
But nothing is better than for God to show us God’s ways and to teach us God’s paths in God’s own way of doing so, which I believe is still being done through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools including St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray:
Dear Lord God, you are the essence of all that is pure and good. We cannot come to you now or in our afterlife without your teaching and guidance. Teach us and guide us therefore Lord God to learn from your presence with us, with or without words, regardless of language, to learn your ways and to be guided along your paths for our sakes through our Lord Jesus Christ: Amen.
onewhoponders 