December 10

“It is no accident that Friends still generally refrain from calling the Bible the “Word” or “The Word of God,” since we hold that only Christ is the Word of God, not as a closed intellectual formula but as a fluid, creative, open-ended, personal, and living power...”  William Taber, 1984, Daily Readings from Quaker Writings, 11/21

One of the definitions for Spirit in the Greek is breath so I’ve begun the exercise of thinking of my inward breath as a filling of Spirit and the outward breath as giving love.  I’m using this whenever I feel an inward anxiety.  It not only provides needed oxygen to my physical body but also is a wonderful reminder that perfect love casts out fear.  When I read the Quaker practice of only using The Word to refer to Christ I saw the truth in the practice immediately.  The Bible holds truth and wisdom, instruction and direction, and everything we could possibly want in the way of information, but it isn’t The Word Himself.  The words of the Bible are information, but it can’t help us to apply that information.  Only the Holy Spirit can do that.  In the beginning the Word was God and God became flesh for a time and we called Him Jesus.  But now we have God as the Holy Spirit.  The Word lives within us now willing us to do what is right.  We need to hold the Bible in esteem, but it must never replace The Word--Christ Himself who lives in us.

“He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.”  Revelation 19:13