The Daily Guide
Taking up God's word
"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:31-32 - NKJV
A book I'm reading has a brainteaser about a donkey. The donkey is tied to a rope 6 feet long and there is a bale of hay 8 feet away. How can the donkey get to the hay if he does not bite or undo the rope? Does it sound like a solution will be difficult to find? Actually it's simple. What made you think it was going to be difficult? Probably because you made the assumption the rope was attached at the other to something else!
In scripture reading you can easily make unfounded assumptions in a similar way. By making assumptions you let your mind miss out a word or phrase or you mentally add in bits. To avoid this you have to challenge yourself in scripture reading. Here's what I do. I read the scripture aloud phrase by phrase in reverse order. I start with its final phrase and work backwards. I say a phrase and then say with it the phrase before it. I continue this, working backwards through the scripture, until I've got the whole scripture reconstructed.
Just as bad though can be failing to fill in the blanks. For example, "the truth shall make you free" has a blank you need to fill in. Why? Because, clearly, the truth unknown does not make anyone free! What are you to do to get the blank? You refer to the statement before it. Jesus first says, "If you abide in My word you shall know the truth." Result? You grasp the teaching as follows, "The truth (you come to know as you continue in My word) shall make you free!"
By God's word His light can shine!
Copyright © 2005 P.F. (Simon) Measures
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