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Key Bible Verse: Taste and see that the Lord is good(Psalm 34:8).Bonus Reading: Luke 10:38-42

Back when we lived in the foothills of Montana, I owned a dog with a fondness for large bones. In his forest rambles he often came across a carcass of a white-tailed deer that had been brought down by the coyotes. He'd show up on our stone patio carrying or dragging his trophy, usually a shank or a rib. Anyone who has owned a dog knows the routine: he'd prance and gambol playfully before us with his prize, wagging his tail, proud of his find, courting our approval. After awhile, sated with our applause, he'd drag the bone off 20 yards or so to the shade of a large moss-covered boulder, and go to work.

Totally absorbed, he'd gnaw the bone, turn it over and around, lick it, worry it. He was obviously enjoying himself—making low throaty rumbles of pleasure as he savored his prize—and in no hurry. After a leisurely couple of hours he'd bury it and return the next day to take it up again. An average bone lasted about a week.

Holy Scripture is characterized by a certain kind of revelatory and transformative writing that invites this kind of reading, soft purrs, and low growls as we taste and savor, anticipate and take in the sweet and spicy, mouth-watering, and soul-energizing morsel words.

—Eugene Peterson in Eat This Book

My Response: When have I lingered over a Scripture passage like a dog lingers over a bone?

Adapted from Eat This Book (Eerdmans, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, if I am ever to resist the seductive spirit of our age, I need to absorb Your Word into the core of my life.

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