Words of Faith

Words of Faith

Spirit to Spirit Writing Project

The word Lent comes from an old English word meaning lengthening of days. In Christianity, it refers to the time before Easter, traditionally observed through repentance and learning. It's a season to be intentional about changing and growing. Some people give up items to create space and time for new life and habits to grow. Instead of giving something up, I invite you to try to commit to answering these writing prompts each of the 40 days of Lent. The discipline it takes to set aside time each day to reflect and write about God and your relationship with spirituality is a journey that you will emerge from with a renewed spirit. Every writer has their own special voice to add to this project, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists, or through comments, prayer, and encouragement.

How do I participate?
Each day, a writing prompt will be posted. A prompt is a question or statement that is meant to inspire your thoughts in whatever genre you feel moved to write. Post your reflections as a comment under each day's prompt (for further instructions, see 'How To Post' on the right side of the page). It is up to you if you write, read, or pray along with us each of the 40 days of Lent or just drop in from time to time when the spirit moves you to participate. Writing regularly is a discipline that many writers struggle with and this is a way to involve that discipline as a Lenten practice. Through writing and leaving encouraging words for others in this project, we become a supportive spiritual writing community

Friday, March 22, 2013

Bible Artifacts

Bibles can be very personal. Sometimes a grandparent or great-grandparent will have a Bible with notes or clippings in it that give testement to the unique faith that they had. Do you or a loved-one have a Bible like this? Do you have a family Bible that is unique in this way? A third-grade Bible? Write about one of these, or you can write about all the different personalities of the Bibles - and the people, families or organizations that have owned them - that you've known
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2013 at 4:04 PM

    Study Bible

    Luther Seminary bookstore back in 1968, crowded, a delightful smell.
    RSV Oxford Study Bible with Apocrypha, hardcover, needs to last.
    A passel of class required books, cost a bundle I knew well.
    But the OSB would travel throughout my courses, not to be outclassed.

    Margins include a yearly schedule to read the whole tome.
    Psalms set up for a monthly read, the best prayer book ever.
    Clear footer notes bring insights that help when mind does roam.
    This library in one binding, Spirit guides with discoveries clever.

    A desk companion, not a shelf occupant from study to study.
    Into hundreds of groups, it would open to the bookmarked spot.
    God’s salient word includes gentle poetry to battles bloody.
    No political correctness edition, just the Word, ‘tittle to jot’.

    Two parish pastors’ studies, a counselor’s office, chaplain’s digs.
    This faithful workman’s toolkit has traveled into a retirement slot.
    Binding broke some time back, bit of duct tape, its’ failure reneges.
    My personal ‘throne room’ book rack, mornings’ meditation spot.

    Never have I taken to underlining, high-lighting, text desecration.
    My notepads gather the info that must be emphasized, given a push.
    Thus the text stands clear, ready to let the eye, heart find oblation.
    Multiple other resources have fleshed out my study desk’s crush.

    Worship always includes thoughtful study in my practice of life.
    Study means a prayerful process, opening up to the Author of All.
    This amazingly sturdy old book, endures a full range of history’s strife.
    ‘Twill be passed on to another when my mortal flesh does fall.

    Thanks be to all book dealers, those who provide scholars such help.
    Pause for a moment; reflect upon the library surrounding your space.
    Richness of thought accompanies me now, ever since I was a whelp.
    May the Word in all its’ forms be abundant for study continues apace.

    The Rev. Ronald Allen Melver, M.Div.
    22 March 2013

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  2. RuthMarch 23, 2013 at 9:11 PM

    I got a Bible in 3rd grade. I think most kids who go to church in 3rd grade get one. I love when I go to the Crossways class on Wednesday (covering the whole Bible, one chapter at a time) and I see the Bibles that are old and used – some of them may be 3rd grade Bibles as well. I remember being all excited when I got mine. Now I could really read some stuff that people had been talking about. I loved to read. I would read the whole thing. I would look up all the passages that I knew. However. I opened the book and there were wordswordswords!! This book was HUGE!! Not like I’d never seen a Bible before – I was a PK. I was literally surrounded by Bibles all my life, but holding my own in my hand (and reaching the age of 8) made me more interested in paging through it and studying it. Huge, I tell you. Plus, where were all the passages I knew? Buried in this wordbook. I received a Revised Standard Version – black, with gold lettering that said “Holy Bible”. Nondescript from any other, except it was mine. I remember looking up one verse – I don’t know where I saw it: Sunday’s bulletin? I always thought it was on the inside front cover, but I just looked and it was a different verse about the righteous flourishing like a palm tree. The mustard Seed verse was the first Bible Verse I looked up in my own little Bible and I was so proud – and I have actually carried it with me throughout my life.
    One day I asked my parents when I could be ‘finished’ reading the Bible. My dad was a Pastor and I was anxious to be done and all ‘churched up’. They said that I was ‘finished’ when all the pages were yellowed with time, dampened with tears and a general mess of use and time. I am almost 40 – hopefully halfway or less through my life and I am not done reading my bible, but here is how it has changed over the years and become truly ‘mine’:
    As a kid, I was an avid (obsessive) sticker collector, so there are stickers all over the front and back cover and inside some of the blank title pages (80’s Bible-themed stickers: Jesus is the Answer, a little girl saying to Jesus, “what happened to your hand?” and a series of scratch n sniff stickers that say things like “isn’t it grape to be a Christian” (guess what it smells like), and “And on the 8th day, God created popcorn”). Between the pages are: pressed flowers, pew cards from some of the churches that I’ve ‘lived’ at, highlighted and underlined texts - though not that many, a little penciled note of “Me!”with an arrow pointing to the title of the book of Ruth, the bulletin from my grandpa Millar’s funeral, the Mustard Seeds Bible verse mostly still highlighted in a now-faded color, a pristine $2 bill (really?? The reason is lost to time, I guess…), a small picture card for a wallet of a white Jesus, a kindergarten school photo of my oldest daughter, a drawing of a meatball from my youngest daughter when she was 2, a plastic bookmark with a bible verse on one side (the one about the ‘cloud of witnesses’) and a sticker on the other side that says, in a Nike-ish way, “Just read it”, and lastly, a completely faded construction paper bookmark from my elementary school with an un-recognizable student drawing, mimeographed in the mid-80’s. On the back of this bookmark, I have stamped a picture of Mork from Ork and also a two stamps of unicorns. There is also a balloon sticker stuck right above the trio that says, ‘praise the Lord’ and that, I think, sums the book up very well. This is a book of a personal history within a book of a personal history and yet the whole thing together it is a book of loving artifacts that can be read and understood through the lens of one word: LOVE.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 29, 2013 at 8:36 AM

    wow! an artifact of the queendom of Ruth. thanks.

    ronaldo

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