A little boy found a dusty leather bound book on a shelf and took it to his mother, asking, “What is this?”
His mother replied, “Be careful with that. That’s the Bible. It’s God’s book.”
The boy looked quizzically at his mother and said, “Don’t you think we should give it back to Him? Doesn’t look like anybody here is using it.”
During Lent we who are baptized are called to simplify our lives so that we might focus on the saving love of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us. The best way to do that is to steep ourselves in the scriptures…to dust off our Bibles…to empty our lives of all the clutter of worldly worries and cares, of trifles and trivia…to read and study God’s Holy Word that our lives might be filled with God’s Spirit, guided and empowered by His witness and will.
Why not set aside 15 extra minutes each day of this Lenten season to do more reading in your Bible? Set aside 15 extra minutes to prepare yourself for the temptations that are sure to come? If you do, you might set a pattern that will continue long past Lent as you discover the riches wrapped between the pages of this book.
Did you realize that if you read the Bible at standard pulpit speed (slow enough to be heard and understood) the reading time would be 71 hours. If you would break that down into minutes and divide it into 365 days, you could read the entire Bible, cover to cover, in only 12 minutes a day. Is this really too much time to spend being fed and challenged, comforted and strengthened by our God?
Last Sunday we heard about Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. (Luke 4:1-13) Notice that all three times Satan confronted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus responded with scripture. All three responses were from Deuteronomy. Jesus went back to the faith of His childhood, that catechism that He knew by heart, those rote prayers repeated so often that didn’t leave Him when He needed them. He quoted passages of scripture any good Jew would know that were declarations of who God is and what a relationship with God looks like. There is something to be said for memorizing scripture and hymns.
The sure antidote to temptation is to be focused on Christ, to be so filled with His power, His salvation, His life and service, that there is no room for temptation. Shortly after the Reformation, some young followers of Martin Luther wrote to him (kind of like an original Ann Landers) with a question, saying, “We are harassed by many temptations which appeal to us so often and so strongly that they give us no rest. You don’t seem to be troubled in this way and we should like to know your secret. Don’t temptations bother you? Are you somehow immune to sin?”
Luther wrote them back in reply, saying, “I, too, know something of temptation. But the difference is that when temptation comes knocking at the door of my heart, I always answer, ‘Go away! This place is occupied. Go back where you came from, for Christ is here.’ “
If we fill our hearts, our minds with God’s word there won’t be room for the devil to set up shop. Lent is a good time for us to realign our focus by spending more time in scripture reading and prayer.
Leslie Dunkin once told about a dog he had when he was a boy. This was an unusually obedient dog. Periodically his father would test the dog’s obedience. He would place a tempting piece of meat on the floor. Then he would turn toward the dog and give the command, “No!” The dog, which must have had a strong urge to go for the meat, was placed in a most difficult situation to obey or disobey his master’s command.
Dunkin said, “The dog never looked at the meat. He seemed to feel that if he did, the temptation to disobey would be too great. So he looked steadily at my father’s face.”
Dunkin then made this spiritual application: “There is a lesson for us all. Always look up to the Master’s face.”
As the songwriter says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face; then the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
This Lenten season let us turn our eyes to the cross, realizing that we cannot make it on our own, and yield our hearts, our minds, our lives, to the one who gave His life for us.
Your sister in Christ,
Linnea K. Gustafson
Interim Minister at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer & Zion Lutheran Church
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.
