The Summer of '11 -- "The Summer of the Bible"

The Word for today:  Psalms 1,2

mark this:   Psalms 1:1-2

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

& this:  Ephesians 5:25-26

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

Jesus deliberately used the first phrase from the Psalms for the first line of his Sermon on the Mount.

Psalm 1:1--

Blessed in the man…

The Sermon on the Mount--

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Psalm 1 starts with what not to do:

Don't walk like the wicked, or stand like a sinner, or sit like a scoffer.

Alright.  But what should we do?

The answer is to meditate on the word of the LORD day and night.

Meditate.  Then cogitate, then marinate, baste, and --better yet--baptize yourself in the Word of the Lord.  (To baptize means  to become one with something; to identify with that something; to lose ourselves within that something.) 

The Psalms are full of hope and desire and despair and downright attitude.  They are texture and atmosphere, not theology.  So breathe them in like air, bask in them like sunlight, bathe in them like water:

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. (Ephesians 5:26)

Happy, then, is (s)he who isn't walking around, or standing around, or sitting around the "pool," but has decided to jump right into the "water of the Word."

***

As I type this, summer is suddenly upon us.  I propose that we take a vacation this summer.  Let's get away from the way we usually live our lives:

Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,

for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, 

and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.  (Song of Solomon 2:10-13)

  

Let's take a summer-long trip into the Bible.  

Let's read it. Moreover, let's test it out in our lives.  Let's try out the principles it proposes.  Let's try them on; let's wear them.

Thereby, by the authority vested in me, I officially declare the summer of '11 to be "The Summer of the Bible."

Take it slow; make the summer last.  Get good and wet.  Splash in scripture every day.  Soak it up.  Soak it in.  Live it out.

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