Quotes from James C. Wilhoit

Too often we seem to have the idea that submission to Scripture means that we first come to see it as reasonable and then submit to it, but submission means, in part, a willingness to bend the knee in faith to things that are not fully resolved in our mind.

The Spirit of God, being divine, oversees this inspiration process such that the words and expression of Scripture are both naturally and authentically the words of the different writers and just what God wants to say. We listen through the words of people to the voice of God. And because it is the word of God, we must listen to these human words with profound care.

God in his love has chosen to reveal himself. We understand God to be self-sufficient and not in need of our gifts and service. God is not "served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). He has chosen to speak to us because he desires to be in relationship with us-he desires to make friends with us.

We describe people who reveal something of themselves to us as "open." Open captures an important dimension of what we call revelation. The term revelation is derived from the Latin word revelatio, and it means "uncovering." Something that was hidden has been opened or uncovered for us to see. We are unable to know God directly through our observations-unless he makes the first move, and he has done just that.

As we read the Bible, we find instructions, moral teachings, images and history. In and through these different writings, we learn of God's active involvement in human affairs. We can perceive God acting with relationship to us even as we read the writings of Scripture. We not only read about God's blessings, we receive blessing; we do not just overhear the Father telling Jesus that he is the beloved of God, we also hear those words about Jesus spoken to us.

Christian spiritual formation requires that we actively and continually receive from God. We need to be extraordinary consumers of grace; we need to receive his words of love and correction, his forgiveness, his affirmation, his life, and the list goes on. Without receiving from God, there is no true formation.

we cannot cure our own brokenness nor can we manage it. Unfortunately, the longer we spend around the church the more we tend to ourselves less as sinners and more as people who are "getting it together" avoiding the deep transformation that Christ can only do in us!

What about the passages where Scripture appears to be contradictory or those difficult matters we discover in our reading? One suggestion for our reading at these points is to rest in what we do know, trusting God (perhaps through others) to illumine us concerning what we don't know.

The Bible contains many stories of dysfunctional heroes because its purpose is to show us our exceptional God, a God of love and grace and power; who works through people who have limitations - just like we do. These stories help us develop a vocabulary to identify and describe the reality of brokenness in our own lives.

It is essential for us all to realize that admitting to brokenness is not to doubt the healing and restoring grace of God. Rather, the brokenness needs to call us to a dynamic discipleship, which grows through faith beyond the mere acknowledgment that brokenness is all that we can expect from life.