Reading with understanding

We have been taught to read the Bible from our youth, or when we first came to faith. We read it alone and in company with others, always trusting the Spirit to guide our reading and meditating. Often, the Lord brings things to our attention in the midst of our reading that we can claim for ourselves for a particular situation. We may well be taking the verse out of context, but God uses it to speak into our needs at that point. Many people also claim a particular verse for the year, or for another specific time period. This verse can help anchor what one does and thinks. Mine for the past year or two has been Psalm 16:8: “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Every time I fly I recite the verse segment from Deuteronomy 33:27, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Others pray the prayer of Jabez on a regular basis.

However, we have to be careful that we don’t develop our theology around that kind of reading. Yes, underneath are the everlasting arms, but reciting that as a mantra will not ensure that there will be no accident. It will just remind me that I am safe in God’s arms, no matter what happens. Theology, or our study about the nature and attributes of God and our faith, needs to be formed, as Doug Heidebrecht says in his article in this issue, within “the local church and the larger Conference, to balance our inevitable individual blind spots and limited perspectives. Interpretation and application of the Bible should always be done in the context of the church listening to the Spirit as they read the Word.”

We will never understand everything we read in the Scripture – about our salvation and about future events or any other topic. However, the more we read, and discuss and search others’ thoughts on it, always under the guidance of the Spirit, the more we will understand.

The Board of Faith and Life (see opposite page), is proposing provincial study conferences to process our understanding of Scripture regarding the issue of women in leadership. We encourage our readers to mark the date for their particular conference on their calendars and then come prepared to seek God’s face collectively.

Also in this issue, learn more about the daily life of missionaries by reading excerpts of Faith Nickel’s diary. Hopefully these will stimulate you to pray more meaningfully for the missionaries who are on your particular prayer list.

And be challenged by Randy Friesen’s article on short-term missions. Many of our churches are using this method of stimulating interest in missions in their young people.