October 22 2001

ARTICLE TOOLS

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All word and no spirit, we dry up; all Spirit and no Word, we blow up; both Word and Spirit, we grow up.

The highest proof of Scripture derives in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it.

The nature of water is soft, that of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above the stone, allowing the water to fall drop by drop, it wears away the stone. So it is with the Word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but the man who hears the Word of God often, opens his heart to the fear of God.

The narratives of Scripture were not meant to describe our world. … but to change the world, including the one in which we now live.

Because we live so close to the biblical text, we often fail to note its power to summon and evoke new life. The Bible is our firm guarantee that prophetic construals of another world are still possible, still worth doing, still longingly received by those living at the edge of despair, resignation, and conformity.

Apply yourself totally to the text; apply the text totally to yourself.

If God speaks, he must use words to do so. Words express thoughts, commands, descriptions, and the like. The problem is that words and sentences. … must be interpreted if they are to be understood. It is far more than a matter of translation, for while translation gets at what God says, we are still left with the question of what God means.

We think about Scripture because we wish to become "Scripture-shaped"—and, therefore, "Christ-shaped." In response to Scripture's compelling power, we wish to become living commentaries on Scripture. We wish to exhibit the reality of the risen Christ in our own lives.

If the people are not themselves seeking to determine the Word of God in the tangle of their individual ...