Bible Openings

Welcome to Bible Openings.

I am a Quaker, and in Quaker parlance, an “opening” is a “direct revelation about some aspect of religious reality.”* The posts in this blog arise from long-time study of the Bible, deep meditation on its meaning and significance, and, when I’m being true to my Guide, from the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

This is the heart of the Quaker approach to the Bible: reading and studying the Bible in the Spirit that gave it forth in the first place.

Admittedly, not all of the Bible seems Spirit-inspired; there’s some weird stuff in the books in this library. But it is my experience that reading the Bible with an openness to the work of God’s** revealing Spirit can yield nourishing fruit. It can awaken our minds and lead us to new spiritual truth. It can comfort and uplift our hearts. And it can renew our spirits and our faith.

In that spirit, I will offer what I hope are new readings of Bible passages and a new way to think about the Bible. I will try to make this incredible library relevant to our modern times and to our personal situations. But most important, I will hope to open the Bible in a way that brings this spiritual refreshment to my readers.

Many of these posts have come while facilitating a weekly Quaker Bible study, and I owe that group my deepest gratitude. They bring a wide range of perspectives, much valuable knowledge, and a constant stream of great questions that prompt deep thinking. But most important, we often feel truly covered by the Holy Spirit in our gatherings, and the openings come.

Many others of these posts have come out of writing projects that have guided my research, my thinking, and my meditation into directions that traditional commentaries have overlooked, or they have stopped short of deeper consideration. On the other hand, I also owe a debt to many commentators who have led me to truths that speak to my heart and soul.

So welcome! I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart will be acceptable to my Guide and useful to you my readers.

*  Language for the Inward Landscape: Spiritual Wisdom from the Quaker Movement, by Brian Drayton and William P. Taber, Jr., page 143.

** GOD. By the word “God” I mean the Mystery Reality behind our spiritual and religious experience—your experience—whatever that experience is. My own religious experiences are quite varied, and mine will likely be different than yours. But they all have in common their reality and their mystery. We know they are real because they have brought blessing into our lives. But they are also mysterious and transcendental. There is more to them than we can fully understand. They work within us in ways profound and unexpected. They grow. And they hint at something deeper behind them, or within them, which we perceive as in a glass only partially, but we know something is there. And we know that it is good and beautiful because its touch has transformed us.