Discipleship Letters 55-56

Discipleship Letter 55                                                Oct. 03, 2009

The Psalmist said, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law” (119:18).

Christian formation requires that we keep ourselves open to God—cultivate openness to Scripture.

“Open our eyes to see” should be our prayer when we read the Scriptures. We must realize that we are spiritually blinded due to our sinful nature and unwillingness of alternation. Many times the reality of our experience with the Scriptures is like the people of Israel—“You see and understand what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear, but you don’t really listen” (Isa. 42:20). Someone said, “Partial blindness—seeing but not understanding, or knowing what is right but not doing it—can be worse than not seeing at all.”

“So now the Lord says, ‘Stop right where you are! Look for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’ I set watchmen over you who said, ‘Listen for the sound of the trumpet!’ But you replied, ‘No! We won’t pay attention!’” (Jer. 6:16-17)

The Scriptures provide guidance for us to seek and walk on the right path—“Eat the Book.”

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Discipleship Letter 56                                                Oct. 10, 2009

The Book of Psalms begins with the word “Blessed.” Those who are blessed delight in doing and thinking about His law (Ps. 1:2). They are blessed in the sense that they find the joys of doing and thinking about His law. That joy can’t be taken away even in a foreign land. “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4) But they find their joys in this land.

The people of God are like “trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail” (1:3a). Apart from the riverbank, the trees are separated from the source of nourishment. In all four seasons, the trees are planted along a riverbank with strong roots. In winter, it may not look healthy on the outside. But the spring will come. Psalm 1 talks about the circle of life, the rhythm of spirituality. We can’t control the seasons, but we can control whether or not we are planted alongside the riverbank.

What the Lord promises is that the trees bear fruit each season without fail. In the worst season, if we hold on to the fact that we can find eternal life in Scripture (Jn. 5:39), we will grow in our understanding of Scripture because each circle of life deepens our understanding of it.