Rumination

Today in church I was speaking on step 11 of the 12 steps--how to maintain a vital communication with God. A person, even a believer, who does not communicate with God regularly is like a garden that is not watered regularly. Like the unwatered garden, he will eventually dry up and die. I spoke about the vital necessity of Bible reading and study, prayer and meditation. I'll illustrate my point with a story from history.

Geoffery Bull, missionary to Tibet, was captured and imprisoned by Chinese Communists. His captors took all pssessions from him, including his Bible, put him in dank prisons, and treated him severely for 3 years. He suffered from extreme temperatures, bodily abuse, near starvation, mental and psychological torture. He feared that he would go insane.

How did Geoffery keep his mind at peace?

He had no Bible, but he had studied his Bible all of his life. So he began to systematically go over scriptures in his mind. It took him 6 months to go all the way through his Bible mentally. He sarted in Genesis, musing over every incident while praying for light to shine on his meditations. After completing the old Testament, Geoffery moved into the New Testament, Matthew to Revelation. Then he started over again. He later wrote, "The strength received through the meditation was a vital factor in bringing me through. While others languished, and even died in the ordeal, my mental studies of the Bible helped me keep the faith unto the very end."

Just a reminder to those in town, that the Bible Study that I teach through the Bible (We pick up the study at The beginning of the New Testament) will resume in Mid-September at our Coquitlam Campus. For those out of town, I've been recording on tape all our studies from Genesis to Malachi. They are available at a minimal cost.