The Writing and Reading of Many Books

Smith Wigglesworth is a faith Hero of mine. I will never be what he was in Spiritual Giftedness although I want to be. He only ever read the Bible. Only. I have perhaps a thousand books in my home. Most of which I have read. I'm not sure I'm better for it. Mostly likely not. Particularly "Christian" books. Some of them have caused me to veer off track sometimes. Only by washing of the true word...

I have fallen in love with the idea of staying with the idea I learned from Barry Kolb who learned it from someone else - WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY.

We would as Christians and as a Culture be better off if we just kept asking that question.

It is interesting, in addition to Blogging, I journal, a lot. This morning a half dozen pages. About what? About whatever the Lord is Saying to me. Sometimes I share it here. Mostly not. I seem to be getting more from his word and from his word to me than anything else. Yes, I love to debate politics, but my appitite is changing.

My life is changing. I read far less from nonBiblical texts and write far more. Perhaps I can come even a little close to the Ideal of a Smith Wigglesworth. His words:

One thing God has given to me from my youth up is a taste or relish for no other book except the Bible. I can say before God, I have never read a book but the Bible, so I know nothing about books.

As I have peeped into books, I have seen in some of them perhaps one reason for good people to say, “That is a good book.”

Oh, but how much better to get the Book of books which contains nothing but God. If a book is commended because it has something about God in it, how much more shall the Word of God be food for the soul, the strengthening of the believer, and the building up of the human order of character with God, so that all the time he is being changed by the Spirit of the Lord from one state of glory into another.

We shall become flat, anemic, and helpless without the Word, dormant and so helpless to take hold of the things of God.

The Word is everything. The Word has to become everything. When the heavens and the earth are melted away, then we shall be as bright, brighter than the day, and going on to be consistent because of the Word of God.