One of my favorite times in preparing each issue of Interpreter comes when we email the “WAYS Question.” (The “WAYS Question” is our shorthand for the question we send to several thousand of you that generates the responses we use for “We Asked...,” “You Said ....”) As staff, we’ve learned not to email that question on a day we have other deadlines looming. We know you will respond, some of you very quickly ... and we want to read what you have to say.

This issue’s question – What Scripture guides your life and why? – generated the second-largest and the most diverse response we’ve had (read many more responses at Interpreter OnLine). Many of you named passages that challenge you; others cited sources of comfort or assurance. Some spoke to you first in a particular situation, but you still hold them close; some are new guides.

Your responses provided the perfect opening for our package of stories on the Bible. You’ll read about A Divine Love Story that some of our ancestors were inspired to write that we might know God, that we might be guided to live lives that reflect the Love that created us, redeemed us and from which we cannot be separated.

We start with some Bible “basics,” including a look at how the Gospel writers approached the stories of Jesus and move on to what The United Methodist Church says about the Bible – and how several United Methodists understand that. You will find ideas for meditating on Scripture, for using the Bible with children and more.

Lent will be more than half gone when you read this, but there’s still time to use this season – or the coming season of Easter – to draw nearer to God. Maybe you will choose to take a new look at your Bible, to read some “new” Scripture, to immerse yourself in the old and ever new story of One who loves you with “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”