Caleb Allen finished reading the OT (from where I would've been if I'd started my annual goal in January), but is still a bit behind schedule. I've never spent this much time in the Word. It's so amazing how refreshing it is! To my non-Christian friends, "you've GOT to check this out!" How anybody can choose not to believe escapes me. …
I'm going to cut off the "status update" right there and now start in on making the rest of it into a more meaningful, well-written post.
Annual Bible Reading
If you are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, you may recall me posting (Facebook status, via a tweet) about my new goal to read the Bible annually by reading three chapters daily.
I have long struggled with daily devotions. Like many people, I've started many a time, only to lapse after a week, two weeks, a month… it almost felt like, "Why should I bother? It'll only last a short time anyway." Nevertheless, it was an area in which I really wanted to improve… eventually. To be completely honest, my newfound resolution is due in no small part to the influence of my wonderful girlfriend, Amber (of whom I wrote last month), who has been reading the Bible annually using the 3-chapters-a-day plan for seven years already. It's a very simple plan: you start on the first of January at Genesis 1:1, read three chapters daily, and cheat occasionally by reading more than three if they are short (this is necessary because the ratio of chapters to days would require actually reading ~3.25 chapters daily).
Keeping Up
Still struggling, I improve.
It should be a surprise to no reader that one cannot easily go from not doing something at all to doing it perfectly overnight. To say I've not missed days, sometimes several in a row, would be to lie. Amber has been such a blessing to me in many ways; and one important way is that she has continued to gently encourage me to be faithful to my daily readings. When she invited me to join her in doing daily readings, she had just finished Ezekiel and was ready to start Daniel. Having maintained her habit, Amber is now several days into Matthew while I only finished Malachi tonight.
But the more I read, the more I WANT to read… it's a different response than I've felt in my previous attempts. I'm not sure why it's so different, but that it is different I am sure. Perhaps I'm more mature now than in my previous attempts (I should hope so!). Perhaps I'm more motivated (I think I am). But whatever the reason, I'm excited for it!
A Response to Worship
My heart yearns for more and questions those who reject Him.
As I've been reading over this past month, I've been compelled, forced, stretched to my limit, to question how anybody can reject Truth! I think of my friends from college: Chad Whitaker, Christine Price, and Mike Mrozek stick out in my mind. How can they seriously maintain that God is unreal or that He doesn't matter or care? Is there anything I could've done to make an impression on them? It isn't as though they haven't heard. Chad was raised in the church and ran sound, just like me, before leaving home for college. Christine quotes passages I've never read in order to make fun of them! Clearly ignorance is not the issue. I suppose I could've been more outspoken, though I don't even know exactly what that would mean.
I can't change what I didn't do in college, but I can make an ardent plea now.
To my non-Christian friends, "You've GOT to check this out!" There are many spirits out there, but only one of them loves us! The Bible is that spirit's attempt to tell us about itself. And what a mighty spirit it is! He is called many things: Yahweh, Jehovah, Creator, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, God Who Provides, God With Us, Lord of lords, King of kings, God Almighty, Most High, Lord of Heaven's Armies, Comforter, Living God, Holy One, I AM.
As I have been reading my Bible, I have been repeatedly overwhelmed with the thought of how much a blessing it is to know I have a relationship with the one spirit in all of that which exists who actually CARES about me! My friends, what a blessing it could be for you to know this spirit! This spirit is not absent from our world or from our lives, and it is willing that you would seek it. You may think you've been loved in your life (or you may not); you may think you've been blessed in your life (or you may not); you may think you have been comforted in your life (or you may not); but I tell you this, YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET! The spirit who existed before he created all that exists, who so ordained cells to multiply in your mother's womb, and who breathed the very breath of life into your flesh has so much stored up for you that you cannot even begin to imagine it!
How could you pass up on this? Why would you want to‽
You can call me crazy for believing in something I cannot see, but I tell you the truth, I have seen my God! (An old hymn says, "You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart!") I have seen His works; I have seen His blessings; I have literally felt His strength holding me up when I was about to collapse (no, I mean, literally—when I stood in the hospital room where my beloved sister's soul-less body lay, I felt as though I was going to collapse, but a strength came upon me and physically held me on my feet! And it happened a couple other times that week, as well.); He orders the steps of the godly and delights in every detail of their lives (and I can attest to it!).
WHO IS LIKE MY GOD‽
There is none like you, O Lord.
Closing Remarks
Don't dismiss the opportunity to be a part of something worth being a part of.
My friends… if you don't yet call yourself a Christian, please… take some time to read the Bible. I really liked the end of the Old Testament; starting in Daniel may be good. If you have questions, just ask me!
If you do call yourself a Christian, please… take some time to read the Bible! It is so refreshing to read about the wonders of such a mighty spirit that bends the very laws of nature it created and yet concerns itself with the daily dealings of a creature such as I.
God bless you, reader.
1 comment:
Anywho, the more important part - why I think it is that others don't get it. You say that "As I have been reading my Bible, I have been repeatedly overwhelmed with the thought of how much a blessing it is to know I have a relationship with the one spirit in all of that which exists who actually CARES about me!" While I totally ditto that, think about the kind of love God portrays, particularly in the OT; it's tough love, love that we can't fully understand the consequences of without a relationship. It isn't what love has morphed into in our pluralistic society. He is a God who smites those who disobey, who lets the faithful suffer as a testimony to Him. In a world where we look for quick answers and tolerance, is it really surprising? People don't look far enough down the consequences of God's commandments to understand their fruitful nature. The acts of God in the Bible don't look particularly loving to the outsider. It's like children who see the tough love of their parents as being unkind; it isn't until they're older and have developed more of a relationship with their parents that they see it's for their own good.
Ultimately, the whole thing is a big chicken and the egg problem. It requires humility to find God, and an ever-increasing amount of humility to understand that you don't get it and need his help to grow in a relationship with him.
Post a Comment