Do you read with your eyes shut?

Today at Young Readers, I reviewed Dr. Seuss' I Can Read With My Eyes Shut. The premise is silly and over-the-top. How could anyone really "read" with their eyes shut, after all? There is one book that you shouldn't read with your eyes shut: the Bible.

It takes spiritual eyes to read the Bible; ones eyes must be opened by the Holy Spirit in order to read and understand the Word of God. Else one is, figuratively speaking, reading with one's eyes shut.

It is not enough to seek truth in the scriptures, but you must seek life in the scriptures. It is not an object only to satisfy your understandings with the contemplation of truth, but your hearts with the enjoyment of life; and therefore you must not only bring your judgment to find the light of truth, but your affections to embrace the goodness of life offered. Thomas Manton

The clarity of the Scripture is twofold, just as the obscurity is also twofold. The one is external, placed in the ministry of the Word; the other internal, placed in the understanding of the heart. If you speak of the internal clearness, no man sees one iota in the Scriptures but he that has the Spirit of God. All have a darkened heart so that, even if they know how to speak of and set forth all things in the Scripture, yet they cannot feel them nor know them. Neither do they believe that they are the creatures of God, or anything else according to that of Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” For the Spirit is necessary to understand the whole of the Scripture and every part of it. If you speak of the external clearness, nothing at all is left obscure or ambiguous. But all things that are in the Scriptures are by the Word brought forth into the clearest light and proclaimed to the whole world. ~ Martin Luther

God has ordained that the miracle of new birth, by which we are made alive from our spiritual deadness happens through hearing the word of God. The new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit sovereignly making the dead live, giving sight to the blind, so that we see the glory of Christ in the word… He shone in your heart. He overcame your blindness. He caused you to see the glory of God in the face of Christ. That means when the word was preached to you or taught to you or read by you, God said, “Let there be light.” And the self-authenticating glory of God in the person of Christ shone in your heart, as the broad day sun. You were born again. No more deadness. No more bondage. No more guilt. No more wrath. All of it because of the God’s word by the Spirit (see 2 Corinthians 4:5). ~ John Piper, "Scripture, The Kindling of Christian Hedonism"

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible