DEV:The Bible  by  David K. Brandt

   The Spoken Word of God Surely it is you who love the people; all the
holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from
you receive instruction. Deut. 33:3 NIV

   When you place yourself before that which our beloved God has
spoken, then you are at the feet of God. Yet this happens only when one
believes that it does. Many people do not take this personally enough
and God withdraws;then the Word remains hidden and loses its power
within those people. Consequently, many take it no longer as the word
of God and begin to insert their own ideas and philosophies. A person
must watch himself that he does not take the word of God too humanly.

   That which God has spoken represents his person. We should not view
the Bible as though it were some thing, some book;it is the sharing of
God's person with mankind. It is a part of God. One can use the Bible
in a fearful, superstitious way if one looks only on the outward aspect
of what it says, sticking to the letter rather than simply accepting
that God is present in it. Now, if I read the Bible, I'm also speaking
to God. This way a person can understand the Bible quite simply,
because he hears God speak to him. There comes to him an understanding
quite different from what otherwise would be the case. But when a
person fails to do this sort of reading, he is just reading words in a
book. He is not understanding the Bible, because he is not taking it as
something that God is speaking to him.

   If one will view the scriptures as seated at the feet of God, it
will have a different effect from what it would if he had simply read a
book. It is not the book that has value; it is the person of God that
has value in this case.

   Therefore, I will sit at the feet of God,today and tomorrow; it is
there that I will learn; it is there that I will understand.

   Contributed by: David K. Brandt Stephens City, Va.