Holy Spirit Story: My Long Journey with God's Word (w/ Carolyn Berry)

January 11, 2025 00:13:57
Holy Spirit Story: My Long Journey with God's Word (w/ Carolyn Berry)
The Wake-Up Call
Holy Spirit Story: My Long Journey with God's Word (w/ Carolyn Berry)

Jan 11 2025 | 00:13:57

/

Show Notes

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

Acts 1:8 (NIV) "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” CONSIDER THIS Today's Holy Spirit story comes to us from a dear friend of mine and one of our parishioners at the Gillett Methodist Church in Gillett, Arkansas—Mrs. Carolyn Berry. Carolyn and her late husband, Marion, were longtime farmers in Arkansas County after which he served some seven terms in the House of Representatives in Washington as our congressman. Carolyn is a woman of valor and a pillar of faith. I am so delighted to share her with you here today.  Below, you will read the story in her own words and, if you listen, you will hear it in her own voice.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  (Jeremiah 29:13) My journey in God's Word started with legalism. I should read the Bible. It is something I must do to please God. My mother, Josephine, and my Aunt Louise were my constant examples. They kept their Bibles by their favorite chair or sofa table and they read and studied them. Today their Bibles are among my most cherished possessions. They are worn and underlined and written in the margins and on the inside cover. Their example shaped me deeply to want to read and know this Holy Book. I seriously, so I thought, started reading the Bible in my teen years—or trying to. I would read chapters and resolve to keep on. But it was just not working for me. I'm old enough to remember when we, my family, got the Revised Standard Version and later the Living Bible. These gave me hope that they would make me treasure God's Word more. Well, not so much. I think the Spirit of the living God was preparing me in my failures to call out to him for help! And I did! Praise God! His Spirit called to my spirit with a prayer, "Father, I'm asking for a desire, even hunger for your Word." It was honest, straightforward, and simple. Perhaps I confessed my failure. Of course, the Holy Spirit had been on the journey with me. My memory is only of asking and then receiving abundantly more than I ever expected. Somehow the Holy Spirit had led me to the key to unlock the treasures of his Word. Ask! God has led me to amazing teaching through Bible Study Fellowship, Bible studies in my church, teaching from the pulpit, Christian authors and their ancient and modern writings, and Seedbed and their content. Everywhere I look there is encouragement and help. Mostly, though, God speaks to me in my personal reading and prayer and meditation with the Bible. Opening the Bible is central to my life of prayer. Praise, instruction, wisdom, forgiveness, and much, much more is rooted in knowing my Savior and his revelation in the Holy Word. I write this with humility. I am no Bible scholar even at my advanced age—I'm old—and feel I am a toddler in understanding the depth of God's revelation in his Word. Yet he never disappoints. I find him when I seek him. We all can lay hold of that promise. THE PRAYER Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for writing it down in a book, and thank you for getting that book into our hands. And thank you mostly for helping us get your Word out of that book and into our lives. Thank you for Carolyn Berry and her long journey with your Word and for her grace and humility to share it with us. Inspire us to ask you to give us a hunger for your Word. We know this is a prayer you love to answer. We are praying in the name of your son, Jesus, who is the Word made flesh. Amen.  THE JOURNAL PROMPTS How do you identify with Carolyn's long journey with the Word of God? Has it felt like a burden to you or been a legalistic challenge? Have you asked God to give you a hunger for his Word? Will you? 

Other Episodes

Episode

October 31, 2022 00:12:13
Episode Cover

The Grace of Attunement: You Know Me . . .

The Grace of Attunement: You Know Me . . ..

Listen

Episode

January 12, 2024 00:17:58
Episode Cover

The Prayer of Transformation

The Prayer of Transformation.

Listen

Episode

December 07, 2023 00:05:11
Episode Cover

The Singer

The Singer.

Listen