Verse of the Day
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
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COLUMN: THANKFUL
Verse of the Day
by A.A. Neale
Some Internet services provide by email or online
a Verse of the Day or Daily Verse or whatever they
style it. I confess to both liking and despising
them, simultaneously.
These little snippets of verse appear all too like
the scripture boxes the Pharisees wore on the
foreheads, but apparently never read, by virtue of
being close to the eyes but out of range of
vision.
Good luck charms they were, blessings in a box
guaranteed by a literal -- and altogether easier
-- obedience than by installing that same passage
of Bible in the heart and living it out daily.
Worse, the clips of Bible verses show us the
quick-fix society we are. Gobble down the morning
caffeine and a breakfast bar while you drive to
work. Zip through an email with a gaggle of words
torn from a context or read them on an RSS reader
or off a webpage. Check off Bible reading for the
day. Easy, wasn't it?
We're certainly not ready for Nehemiah's plan,
put into action through hair-pulling and nighttime
reconnaissance:
"Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the
children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in
sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then
those of Israelite lineage separated themselves
from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed
their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
And they stood up in their place and read from the
Book of the Law of the LORD their God for
one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they
confessed and worshiped the LORD their God"
(Nehemiah 9:1-3 NKJV).
A fourth of a day is three hours. Add to that
another fourth of a day, and you have a six-hour
church service. A three-hour Bible reading.
Standing up. The other three hours was spent
confessing sin, and I doubt we today know enough
about sin to fill up a five-minute Starbucks
break.
We won't even mention the fasting, sackcloth,
head-dusting, and foreigner-separating that went
on BEFORE the Bible reading.
No, we're doing 10-second whiz-bang Bible
readings on the Verse of the Day. We can imagine
the impact they're making.
But they are nifty, aren't they?
----
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