Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader - Plough

when one believes that it does. Many people do not take thispersonally enough, and God withdraws; then the word remainshidden and no longer has power. Consequently, manyno longer take it as the word of God and want nothing moreto do with it. A person must watch himself that he does nottake the word of God too humanly, too superficially.That which God has spoken represents his Person. I wouldalmost like to say, “Don’t give me the word as though it weresomething—not the Bible but God in the Bible.”...One canuse the Bible in a fearful, superstitious way if one looks onlyon the outward aspect of what it says, sticking to the letterrather than simply accepting that God is present in it. Now,if I read the Law, I am also speaking with God. This way aperson can understand the Bible quite simply, because hehears God speak to him. There comes to him an understandingquite different from what otherwise would be thecase. But when the person fails to do this sort of reading, heis being unbiblical. He is not understanding the Bible, becausehe is not taking it as something God says. If we translateeverything coming to us from God into human terms,then we have a system; and that means that the “biblical”and, indeed, the essential Bible itself are utterly lost...So it goes continually with everything one should say andhear: if he does it as seated at the feet of God, it will have atotally different effect from what it would if he simply reada book. Doing that has no real value...It is not the book thathas value; It is persons that have value—in this case, the Per­107