A Methodist Way of Life

Let’s embark on using what we discovered yesterday as a means immersing ourselves in our daily scripture, through the first step of Lectio (to Read)

Our first reading of the Bible is an opportunity to get to know the Scripture passage and listen carefully for any words or phrases that seem to jump out. It’s important not to force things, but wait patiently for God to give gentle guidance. Why not read Jeremiah 31? As an example your mind may be drawn to the strength of God’s commitment to His covenant:

“[I will make a new covenant] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband.” (Jeremiah 31:32 English Standard Version)

Were you struck by the image of God leading His people by the hand as an act of love – they weren’t left to begin their momentous journey alone. Yesterday I quoted Fred Buechner who also says of God’s Covenant, “What is new about the New Covenant, therefore, is not the idea that God loves the world enough to bleed for it but the claim that here God is actually putting his money where his mouth is. Like a father saying about a sick child, “I’d do anything to make you well,” God finally calls his own bluff and does it. Jesus Christ is what God does, and the cross is where he did it is the central symbol of New Covenant faith.”

Did you sense that you are included in this New Covenantal God leading scenario and he takes you by the hand? Here is an inspiring hymn by Timothy Dudley-Smith

Open our eyes, O Lord, we pray,

enlighten heart and mind;

that as we read your word today

we may its treasures find.

Open our ears that, small and still,

your voice be clearly heard,

to guide our steps and cleanse our will

according to your word.

Open our lives to love's embrace,

our dear redeeming Lord:

your word of life and truth and grace

within our souls be stored.

Open our lips, O Lord, in praise

to tell what love imparts:

the work of grace about our ways,

your word within our hearts.

Words © 1997 Hope Publishing Company, 380 S Main Pl, Carol Stream, IL 60188 CCLI 814800