When we go grocery shopping my wife and I always buy a loaf of bread. I am not sure when we got a loaf ahead. But the new loaf cannot be used until the old loaf is gone. That means this week we will eat last week’s bread while this week’s bread will wait until next week to be consumed. The end result is we are always eating semi-stale bread, while the fresh bread ages in the cupboard. Couldn’t we, instead of eating the semi-stale bread, put it out for the birds? We must have inherited this compulsion to be frugal from our parents who lived through the Great Depression.
One of the many remarkable things about Scripture is there is never a need to read stale stuff. Because God’s Word is imbued with His Spirit, who knows us better than we know ourselves, God is able to continually feed us fresh ideas. One could spend their entire life just feeding off the Gospels and still be overwhelmed by the story of God’s love for us. However, in addition to that we have the wonders of the Psalms and the wisdom and humor of the Proverbs. Romans, Galatians, Colossians and Ephesus can challenge the greatest of scholars no matter how many doctorates they have accumulated. It is like a spring of fresh water, each time you come there is new water.
What would grow stale is rereading these devotionals. I am delighted to know that people read them once. My point is not to denigrate myself but to point out if all we do is listen to another person’s sermons or read their books we are reading second hand material. The really fresh bread is in Scripture.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 15, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org