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被神的话解开
文/凯西·亨宁
凯西·亨宁 |
I was an English lit major almost before I learned to read. From grade school through graduate school 和 beyond,
I was smitten with the great British writers of yore — Chaucer, 弥尔顿, 莎士比亚, 华滋华斯, 狄更斯——这样的例子不胜枚举. Immersing myself in their splendid poetry 和 prose was for years my life’s first purpose.
Five years ago, though, my perspective began to change. 2001年新年前夜，
I resolved to read the entire Bible — all 31,173 verses — by the end of 2002. 在那之前, 除了一些诗篇和谚语, I’m not sure I’d ever read a single chapter of the Bible all the way through.
It’s ironic that it took me so long to begin reading the Bible, because I’m a preacher’s kid. My father was an Episcopal priest from Engl和, so I grew up steeped in Anglicanism. 世界范围的圣公会, 包括圣公会吗, 以其庄严的礼拜仪式而闻名, a liturgy abundantly laced with Scripture. Yet somehow I reached adulthood with a master’s degree in English literature 和 barely a grade-schooler’s knowledge of the greatest book of all.
What compelled me to start reading the Bible in earnest? Partly I wanted to be able to recognize biblical allusions in literature. Partly I was tired of knowing less about the Bible than some atheists 和 agnostics I knew.
But mostly I was motivated by something my pastor had said one Sunday morning. Someone had asked him how we can recognize God’s voice. “去了解他的话，”他回答. “从头到尾读圣经. 然后从头到尾再读一遍. 一次又一次. 很快你就会听出他的声音.”
所以在1月1日, 2002, 我开始阅读, 和 sometime in the last week of December 2002, 我完成了31,第173节. I’m pretty sure it was the only New Year’s resolution I’d ever kept.
当我开始, I assumed that reading through the Bible would make me biblically literate, 然后我就完了, 任务完成. But late in December I came to what struck me as Jesus’ most astonishing identity claim — “I am the Root 和 the Offspring of David” — 和 it was then that I began to truly underst和 who Jesus was, to underst和 what he had meant when he said, “我是阿拉法，也是俄梅戛, 开头和结尾.突然间，一切都说得通了. Jesus was not just the condemned Christ who walked to Golgotha carrying his own cross. He was not just the risen Lord who walked to Emmaus with the two grieving disciples. He was, 和 is, the creator God who walked with Adam 和 Eve in the cool of the day. He was, 和 is, the “one like the son of man” who walked
in the blazing furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, 和 Abednego. He was, 和 is, the “mighty God, the everlasting Father.” Though I’d long believed on some level that Jesus was God, I didn’t really “get it” until then.
I wasn’t done; I was undone. And I couldn’t wait to start reading through the Bible again.
我现在读到第六遍了. Each time I read it, I am undone again, because each time God speaks to me in new ways. One instance st和s out above all the others. In December 2003, my husb和 died of a brain tumor, leaving me alone with two adolescent sons. 当他弥留之际, God reminded me of the promise I had read in Psalm 68:5: “A father to the fatherless, 寡妇的捍卫者, 神在他的圣所吗.“现在, 三年多，近150人,000诗句之后, I could write a book about the truth of that one promise. God’s faithfulness takes my breath away.
What have I learned from reading the Bible? I’ve learned the critical importance of obeying God: Beginning in Genesis 3, when God banishes Adam 和 Eve from the garden lest they eat of the tree of life, 在启示录22章结束, when God promises to the obedient full access to the tree of life, the Bible tells of the price we pay for our disobedience 和 the blessings we reap for our obedience. 为什么? 因为赌博十大靠谱软件的上帝是公正的上帝 和 怜悯. I’ve learned that the Bible is a powerful weapon, “比任何双刃剑都锋利, piercing even to the division of soul 和 spirit, 还有关节和骨髓.“我明白了, 从头到尾, the Bible reveals the faithfulness of God — Father, 儿子, 和 Holy Spirit — in working out for us his gr和 plan of reconciliation, which he conceived before the world began.
为什么要读圣经? Because you will come to know God’s voice, 当你听出他的声音, you will be able to follow him wherever he leads you: “He calls his own sheep by name, 把他们引出来. 当他把自己的羊牵出来的时候, he goes before them; 和 the sheep follow him, 因为他们认得他的声音.”
凯西·亨宁 is a communications specialist in Seattle Pacific’s Office of University Communications. She says her quest for biblical literacy, coupled with her many years of writing 和
非宗教工作场所的营销, prepared her for a job that has become a calling: “communicating SPU’s vision for engaging the culture 和 changing the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Henning’s older son is now a freshman at Seattle Pacific.
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