Meditations—points to ponder

Reading is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated, 

taken into the soul—eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight. 

Words of men and women long dead or separated by miles and/or years 

come off the pages and enter our lives freshly and precisely, 

conveying truth and beauty and goodness—

words that God’s Spirit has used and now uses to breathe life into our souls. 

Our access to reality deepens into past centuries and spreads across continents, 

however carries with it subtle dangers. 

Too often we can silence the living voice and reduce words 

to what we can use for convenience and profit … 

and it is these words that need rescuing. 

We are formed by God’s Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture. 

God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities … 

we grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by Holy Spirit.

Eugene Peterson Eat this Book! the art of spiritual reading p12

1 Peter 1:23 (NRSV) — 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

1 Peter 1:23 (The Message) — 23 Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. 

Just think: a life conceived by God himself!

1 Peter 1:23 (NCV) — 23 You have been born again, and this new life did not come from something that dies, but from something that cannot die. 

You were born again through God’s living message that continues forever.