Eat This Book #3: Formation

. 2 min read

2015/10/25
Christ Church, Mountain Top
Call
to Worship, Psalm 119.129-136 (137-144)
Children, 1 Samuel 3
Message, 2
Corinthians 2.12 – 3.6
Review:
            Word of God/the Word
            Meditate
            Incarnate
                        Metaphor for process of
inspiration, interpretation
            Today: biblical authority
            “Getting into” the Scripture, word
of God
The first step
toward what is much more important:
            The word of God “getting into” you
and me
“Eat this book”
            Ezekiel 2-3 – eat this scroll
            Jeremiah 15.16 – words came, I ate
them
            Revelation 10.9 – eat this scroll
Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey
in your mouth.
            You ARE what you EAT – Popeye

Internalize
            Smell like Christ
            You are our letter, written on heart
(not stone)
            What is important is not information
but transformation, inside-out
External process of
reading and studying
linked to internal (meditate, obey)
            Timothy: public reading, 1Tm 4.13
            Nehemiah, reading of the Scriptures
            Bereans, Acts 17.11
Focus on internal:
            Living and active, pierces to
dividing soul and spirit, Hebrews 4.12
            Will not return empty, Isaiah 55.11
EAT this book –
internalize – let it form you
      Jesse – labyrinth, minotaur
      Robin – the Lord’s Prayer (boring,
meaningless words in worship?)
Authority of Scripture
Indigestion
      Me
– MLK’s Stride Toward Freedom
(as writing pastoral letter)
            For my own life’s inconsistency
Internalize
In the interaction of text with experience, particularly pain
In spiritual practice, repetition (those boring, meaningless words!)
      Robin, with the Lord’s Prayer
On delay – like getting a joke
      Don’t give up when it doesn’t
“do anything for me”
In a group –spiritual practice in the ancient church was in community
Dmitri, heartsong in Russian prison
From The Insanity of God, one of mom and
dad’s books
            Internalized
            Indigestion, do you think?
            Smell like Jesus

            You are our letter, written on the
heart