Ecclesiastes

"I don't think it is just the English teacher in me that leads me to this conclusion about our basic problem in Bible study these days: we've forgotten how to read! We're so used to fast food that we think we should be able to drive by the Scriptures periodically and pick up some easily digestible truths that someone else has wrapped up neatly for us. We've disowned that process of careful reading...observing the words...seeing the shape of a book and a passage...asking questions that take us into the text rather than away from it...digging into the Word and letting it speak! Through such a process, guided by the spirit, the Word of God truly feeds our souls."

I am so excited to begin a new Bible study this week from Kathleen B. Nielson on the book of Ecclesiastes. I am guilty - I read short clips of things and avoid those things that require long term energy and focus, even the Bible sometimes. My Bible reading often falls under the headings of habit, perfunctory, bland, ...drive through, fast food. My prayer through this Bible study for me and the other ladies engaged in it with me is that of Nielson's, "that, by means of these studies, people would be further enabled to read the Scriptures profitably and thereby find life and nourishment in them, as we are meant to do."