This is an example of the observation step of journaling using w-O-r-d as an acronym to write through scripture chapter by chapter. Please know that I have been journaling for years and years and years. Point taken, I still see things fresh that the Holy Spirit has not made clear before when I slow down and make careful observations of what the chapter, I have read that day contains.
The observation step comes right after you have read your designated chapter of scripture for the day and recorded the verses that are highlighted to you today. In observation we are not rewriting the rest of the chapter that we did not use for our key verses. We are observing what is there. What is the context that the verses are written in? Who said it? Why did they say that? You may even recall what is said about this subject elsewhere in scripture that helps these verses you are focused on make sense. You can even write what is not there that may be relevant to your passage of scripture and its genuine meaning. Please always remember that context determines meaning. Because context determines meaning, the Bible cannot say something to you that it could not say to the original receivers of the letter. This understanding is vital to your reflection more than to your observation. We do however make observations by playing detective and trying to understand the original audience and setting.
Observation skills are something we need to constantly work on as we read our Bibles. Slow down enough to see what is really there n
ot what we think is there.
I am always surprised by the fact that no matter how many times I read my Bible and the countless times I have read the chapters of the Bible I always see something that I have not seen before. This takes me to a recent example as I am reading the Book of John with you.
My W- was from John 20:21-23 (copied here for your benefit)
Again, Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
There are two major things that I saw for the first time this day. So my observation went something like this:
The disciples did not have to wait for the day of Pentecost to receive the Holy Spirit. This filling with the Holy Spirit was not tongues of fire. Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit when they were locked away. He sent them as the Father sent Him (Jesus). He then told them to do the very thing that made the religious leaders so upset with Jesus. FORGIVE SIN. The miracles were there for Jesus because he was demonstrating that he had the authority to forgive sin.
I have to stop here not because there are not amazing things that I have reflected on as a result of these small passages but because this is the end of the observation section of this writing. I will pick up with reflection in a few days.
May the Love of Jesus capture your heart. He loves you more than you can fathom.
Grace
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