Week 37 John 16
People make use of the bible in different ways. I heard where back-in-the-day people would put a bible under their pillow at night to keep witches away. The theory was that the witch had to count all the words of the bible before doing her evil plan…so hopefully the sun would rise before she finished. That might or might not be a yarn.
One practice that’s not a yarn is where people close their eyes & flip open the bible randomly & put their finger on the page. The theory there is that the word or phrase or verse they landed on contains some useful thing. One word for this type of drill is bibliomancy (and since divination usually figures in as a part of bibliomancy a lot of bible readers wouldn’t include that aspect). I’ve tried open-and-point a couple of times.
My normal practice using the bible is to sit down and read and in my reading I look for information. Reminders. Connected ideas. New angles. Personal prompts. Insights. I try fitting fittable things together. Try not to get out-of-my-depth.
I don’t have a Life Verse but if I did it’d likely be this pretty straightforward & understandable one: in the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. Anyone could have written the first phrase. It’s the second that’s the big one – and the one that I need to refresh regularly: Be brave. Jesus has overcome the world.
Note: John 16:33 (ESV)