GRAYDON BOYES OBITUARY
Post date: Apr 28, 2013 1:35:50 AM
May Sunday schedule of worship leaders
May 5th Rev. Reg McMillan
[a retired Presbyterian minister now in our congregation]
May 12th Rev. Cam Taylor
[a retired Presbyterian minister - summer resident]
May 19th Rev. George Vais
[interim moderator]
May 26th Mission Sunday
[members of the congregation will lead worship]
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In preparartion for the lecture given by Dr. Jim Thomson on Saturday, May 25th from 10 am to noon, on "The Bible, the Church and Secularism", I invite you to read the following quotation.
How to read the Bible?
"A young woman said: 'You don't need someone to tell you how to read the Bible. Open it anywhere, read three verses, make your mind a blank, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest!'
No one is going to deny that the simplest and the most unlettered person, with no aids to study at all, can find the word of God in the Bible, and can discover there strength for life, comfort for sorrow, and guidance for action. But it is also true that the more we bring to the Bible, the more we will get from the Bible.
There is more than one level at which we may listen to anything. Take the case of music. We may listen to a great symphony simply as a marvellous river of sound. That is the simplest way of listening. We may study the programme notes, and we may see the structure of the music. We may see how the themes enter and are developed and interwoven by the composer. That brings something more to the study of the music. We may, before we listen, find something about the life and experience of the composer, so that we know something of the situation out of which the music was born. That clearly will make the music more meaningful yet.
The Bible is like this. Of course, the simplest person can open it and read it. But the more we know about the Bible, the more thrilling and facinating this book becomes." [William Barclay, The men, the meaning, the message p.1]