How to read the Bible for all it's worth....?

I came across this quote from C.H. Spurgeon, one of the figures from Church history I can't help but admire. It certainly challenges the way I read the Bible:

He [Christ] leans over me, he puts his finger along the lines, I can see his pierced hand: I will read it as in his presence. I will read it, knowing that he is the substance of it, - that he is the proof of this book as well as the writer of it; the sum of this Scripture as well as the author of it.....You will get at the soul of Scripture when you can keep Jesus with you while you are reading.

Food for thought

I've been looking again at the writings of Blaise Pascal, probably best remembered now for Pascal's Triangle. I worked in a school in France for a year named after him, in the town of his birth. Interestingly, in light of the last post, he was a devout Roman Catholic, and he has some great insights on the relationship between reason and faith, amongst other things. Anyway, here's a quote for the day:

There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness
for those of a contrary disposition.

Heart of the Matter

Came across this from Jack Hayford, American Pentecostal Pastor - unlikely source perhaps, but good point all the same:

It is almost unimaginable to most 21st-century followers of Jesus to think
that three-fourths of the history of the Church, believers had no copy of the
Bible. Even following Gutenberg's development of movable type, it was more than
two centuries before sizable portions of the population could afford a Bible.
Yet for all those centuries, the Church worshiped, the Person of Christ was
exalted and the testimony of salvation through His cross was maintained. It is
because New Testament worship had a center (sic) point - the Lord's table.

The accessible, readily available and mobile resource of
bread and wine - established by the Lord of the Church Himself as the
foundational ritual His people would observe - has, inherent in its elementary
simplicity, a...cluster of worship essential that, to this day, make His table a
universal gathering place...

Read of the Year...

...for me at least has been Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Not new this year I know, but I discovered it this year, read it over the summer and am now reading it again. Not many novels make me want to do that, but this is beautifully written. The fact it's about a Pastor probably helps - it's in effect a series of letters/thoughts that an elderly Pastor in 1950s America leaves for his 7 year old son to read when he grows up. If that doesn't exactly sound gripping, you'd be surprised! It's positive, realistic, sad at times and makes you grateful to be alive. And is full of some great lines that are quotable out of context and still have an impact. Here are just two examples:

"People want to respect the pastor and I'm not going to interfere with that. But I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I ever learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books. This is not a new insight, but the truth of it is something you have to experience to fully grasp."

"A good sermon is one side of a passionate conversation. It has to be heard in that way..."

I'm now looking forward to reading Home, the follow-up as such which did come out this year, I think.