CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ENJOYING GOD AS FOOD BY READING THE WORD

Scripture Reading: John 6:27-36, 41-43, 47-58, 60-61, 63, 66-68; 12:50; Matt. 4:4; Jer. 15:16; 2 Tim. 3:16

READING THE WORD BEING ONE WAY TO ENJOY GOD

We have considered how to enjoy God through prayer. In this chapter we will consider how to enjoy God through reading the Bible.

Those who enjoy God know that God is Spirit and that we contact Him with our spirit. There are, however, two ways or means for us to contact Him in our spirit. The first is prayer, and the second is reading the Word. A person who absorbs and enjoys God prays and reads the Word. A believer who does not pray or read the Word has stopped enjoying God. In order for us to absorb God, eat and drink Him, and enjoy Him continually, we need to pray and read the Word every day. Both praying and reading the Word are necessary. We cannot have one without the other.

Concerning breathing in God through prayer, we have pointed out that God dwells in our spirit through His Spirit. Hence, prayer is to turn to our spirit to breathe out, item by item, the things within us and to breathe in God. With the breathing out, there must be the breathing in. In this way we breathe in God Himself as well as everything related to Him. Such breathing out of ourselves and breathing in of God are genuine prayer. Genuine prayer does not depend on how many things we bring before the Lord. It depends on breathing out what is within us and breathing in what is within God. Breathing out and breathing in deliver us from everything related to us and fill us with everything related to God. Breathing in God, who is Spirit, through prayer affords us the most excellent way to enjoy God.

Prayer, however, is not the only way that God has ordained for us to enjoy Him. He has also ordained reading the Word. God created everything in this universe in pairs. In order for the human race to propagate, there is the need of both male and female. Neither male nor female alone is adequate. Transmission of electric waves requires both an antenna and a ground wire; either one alone is insufficient. In the universe there are two sides to everything. A man with only one leg can only jump and hop; he cannot walk. This is unpleasant and also awkward. Everything has a top and a bottom, an inside and an outside, a front and a back, a positive and a negative. Similarly, enjoying God has two tracks, not one. On one track our eyes are closed, but on the other track our eyes are open. One track does not require our thoughts, but the other requires our thoughts. One track begins in our spirit and is unrelated to physical things, but the other track begins with black and white letters and ends in the spirit. In order to enjoy God, we need these two parallel tracks.

When we walk, we need both left and right legs. Similarly, when we absorb God, we need to close our eyes to pray and to open our eyes to read the Word. Everyone who properly breathes in God prays and reads, and reads and prays. If we want to enjoy God, we must learn to use both feet. We must learn to take both tracks. We must learn to pray, and we must learn to read the Word.

OUR PERSON DETERMINING THE WAY WE READ

If prayer is our spiritual breathing, what is reading the Word? This is a big subject. Different people receive different things when they read the same Bible. Every Bible is composed of sixty-six books, beginning with creation in Genesis and ending with an admonition that no one should add or delete from God’s Word in Revelation. The Bible we have in our hands is the same, but it seems as if we read different Bibles because we receive different things. You may receive one thing, and I may receive another. We receive different things from the same Bible. A brother with a deep knowledge of God and the Scriptures once said that the kind of person we are determines the kind of Bible we have. This is absolutely true.

A young person once asked, “Why do you say that we should not lie? In the book of Joshua God blessed Rahab the prostitute who lied. She hid the spies sent from Joshua, lied, and received a blessing.” I could not answer him.

An older brother who longed for his children and grandchildren to treat him well said, “The Bible is wonderful in its expounding of filial piety.” He admitted that he joined Christianity because the Christian Bible provides the clearest teaching on filial piety. He even asked me to come to his home once a week to teach his descendants the teachings of the Bible. When I asked what should be the topic of the meetings, he responded, “What else is there to speak about in the Bible except filial piety?” In his understanding, the Bible was a book on filial piety.

A sister once came to me and said that she had found an important point in the Bible: husbands should love their wives. Then she asked me to visit her husband since he needed this teaching. To an old man with many children and grandchildren, the Bible is a book on filial piety, but to a wife with a cold husband, the Bible is a book on husbands loving their wives.

I am not joking. Perhaps after the sister comes, the next day her husband may come and say, “I fully agree with Christianity, because its Bible teaches wives to be submissive to their husbands. This is a very good teaching. In order to have a good family, a person must accept the Christian Bible. I hope some sisters can come to my home and teach my wife the most important subject in the Bible. This is higher than the Chinese teaching on wives nagging their husbands. The Bible says that a wife must submit to her husband, just as the church submits to Christ and as Sarah submitted to Abraham, calling him lord. No other book speaks of submission as well as the Bible does.”

A thoughtful scientist once said, “When I was young, I despised the Bible, considering it to be a book of fairy tales with no scientific basis. But now I can see that the Bible contains the highest science.” His word puzzled me since I am not aware of the science he was referring to. When I asked him if he was referring to John 3:16 or to 1 Timothy 1:15, he did not even know where these verses were. In his eyes the Bible was a book of science.

A lawyer once said to me, “When I was young, I was a student of law, and I opposed Christianity. I despised the Bible, thinking that it was a simple book. But after so many years, I regret not having studied the Bible. Had I read the Bible fifteen years ago, my strength of argument as a lawyer would be much better today. I have studied many books on law, but no book surpasses the book of Romans in its arguments. This book shows Paul not only as a man of eloquence but also of argument. His arguments subdue and silence men.” However, he did not even know the topic of Paul’s arguments.

Another man who studied literature said, “I have read many famous writings, but nothing matches the Bible in its form, structure, and literary style. The Bible contains prose, poems, historical stories, and many other things. It is like an encyclopedia.” However, he did not know the content of the prose, poems, stories, and histories.

This point should now be clear. The same Bible can be a different book in the hands of different people. To a certain kind of person the Bible is a certain kind of book. Those who are full of hatred find hatred in the Bible. Those who are full of love find love in the Bible. Those who lie find lies in the Bible. Those who are honest find honesty in the Bible. The kind of person one is determines the kind of Bible he reads.

What kind of Bible do we wish to have in our hands? Do we want a book on literature, science, arguments, filial piety, love for husbands, submission for wives, honesty, or lies? The kind of Bible we have depends on the kind of person we are. Different kinds of people have different kinds of Bibles. No one can change this principle.