A Quaker Bible Study

I spent years, on and off, studying the Bible, trying to understand God, reality and my life--believing it was all there and that I could piece it together.

Sola scriptura, as it is written. 

Then I was dragged into the Inner Light, where my reliance on rationalism was broken, my condition(ing) spoken to.

My mind, I was shown, can make whatever use pleases me of scripture, but no Authority lives there that can make use of me.  It’s not the Word of God, it’s just words about God, a compilation of notions—speculations, inferences, reasoning--about It’s nature, character, and plans—things I can argue about, even believe, but never know or need.

Still, among those lurking notions, pregnant with opportunities for my mind to mislead me (and others), I recognize the Light working on the people depicted in the Bible, as It works in my life, as It works in our lives in our Bible study group.

Could anything offer a dozen or so Friends from two yearly meetings more opportunity to disagree and contend with one another than reading the Bible(s) together?        

And we do.

Yet, we remain Friends, and that peculiar love, compassion and reconciliation—the convincement to which we aspire—matures in us on Monday mornings, turning those pages together.  Gathered into The Life, we are brought to know, connect, support and encourage one another. 

The verses may illustrate our broken conditions, but it is the Light that moves us through them, together, toward wholeness.