Please Write This Down...

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.-2 Timothy 16-17


I have just returned from a weekend at the National Lutheran Secretariat of Via de Cristo.  Via de Cristo is a three-day retreat for Christian spiritual renewal.  This National gathering was for the purpose of electing new board members and taking care of other national level business.  I was there as a reporter for the daily newsletter and was able to sit in on many of the activities.


Every Via de Cristo retreat weekend follows the same pattern.  You listen to several talks by lay people and pastors during the course of the weekend. The talks on each weekend follow the same outlines and the same main points are made in each talk.  When the speaker comes to a main point they always say, "please write this down."  This is for three purposes... it refocuses the listeners, it stresses the fact that it is an important point as well as giving the listener notes to look back on later.  After my weekend, I was so delighted to be able to look back at my notes and refresh my memory of all the wonderful things I had heard on my retreat.  But on these weekends the phrase, "please write this down" is used so often that by the end of the weekend, we often joke about it.


That being explained, it was almost like an epiphany when in one of the forums during this past weekend gathering the speaker was talking about some specific scripture.  She said that God was speaking into Paul's ear and probably said, "Please write this down."  Amid the giggles at the reference, I had a small "ah ha! moment".... God was refocusing Paul and indicating that He was making an important point and wanting that point to be able to be referenced at a later date. 


Hmmm.... when you think about it, isn't the entire Bible God's "write-downs?"  The scriptures refocus us; they are God's important points that he wants us to know and remember and they are here for us when we need to reference them.  Imagine what it must have been like to be Paul or one of the other authors of the Bible, hearing in the middle of the night God whispering in your ear, "Please write this down..."  It truly makes me smile.  And it makes me hunger to read those "important points" more often.  After all, if God took the time to tell someone to "please write this down" shouldn't want to read it, reference it often, remember it and make it a part of our lives? 


Father,
Thank you for your wonderful book filled with your "write-downs" for us.  Help us to thirst and hunger after your word.  Amen.


Joys:  a fun, informative and spirit-filled weekend; how wonderfully comfortable my own bed feels after a three nights in a college dorm bed; Awesome first night at VBS and the joy of being able to bring Cecelia all week