Receiving the Whole of Scripture
A study on why the church plans to hear all of God's word, and gives thanks that it can be read at all.
Two things stand behind an open Bible. Someone made it readable, and someone planned to read it. Both take patience.
William Tyndale worked in the 1520s and 1530s to turn Scripture into English that ordinary people could follow. The words he chose helped shape the language itself. What we now read plainly was once costly labour.
Centuries on, pastors still labour over the same word. A preaching calendar is one quiet form of that work: a plan to feed a congregation from the whole of Scripture, not only the passages that come easily to hand. The aim is not to master the Spirit but to make sure nothing is left out.
For your own study, sit with the psalmist's line: "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path" (Psalm 119:105). A lamp shows the next step, not the whole road. That is often how Scripture is given to us — a little at a time, over years.
Ask this week: which part of the Bible have I quietly avoided? Plan to read it slowly. Let it show you one step, and then the next.
Sources
- Planning a Preaching Calendar — The Gospel Coalition
- ‘No Tyndale, No Shakespeare’: How the Bible Made Modern English — The Gospel Coalition
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