Written by Just before I met my wife and while we were dating God was working mightily in my heart. After we had been dating for a few months I began going to church with her. I was learning to be a churchgoer, but the changes I needed to make deep within my soul had not yet fully taken root. I was learning facts about the Christian faith but had not yet applied these truths to my own heart.
For Christmas that year my girlfriend (now my wife) gave me a Bible. I remember receiving this gift with disappointment. I thought that while the gift was certainly well intentioned it was not something which I would use. Apparently my face revealed my thoughts, because Pam issued the following challenge: “You think you’re so smart, but no one who has never read this book can claim to have any intelligence at all.”
As I went home I could not decide whether or not I had been given a gift, assigned homework, or called stupid. I believe anyone who knows me would agree that I have never considered myself to be stupid. Her challenge stung me and over a period of weeks and months I found myself reading the Bible she had given me almost daily. I started reading in the beginning, Genesis. To be honest I did not comprehend everything. To be brutally honest I did not comprehend much, but I was determined and kept reading.
Eventually I began praying and asking the Holy Spirit to help me understand what I read. Each days reading did not lead me to an epiphany, however, gradually over time my understanding increased. I remember days when my Bible reading was dry and required the exertion of my own personal discipline (while I was reading through the “begats”) in various parts of the Old Testament.
Then it happened, I came across a passage which caused my spirit to leap within me and brain to finally fully engage the biblical text. I read in Isaiah:
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Isaiah 51:6 (KJV)
This passage leapt off of the page. In an instant I understood that all my ambition was for naught. Only one thing mattered in my life and in the life of every other person on the planet. The only thing that mattered was God’s salvation. In an instant the ambiguity of life was for me clarified.
That was twenty-eight years ago. Since that time I have read through the Bible more times than I know. I wish I had thought to keep count. I went to seminary and learned to read Hebrew and Greek so I could better understand it. I think it is accurate to say that I have committed my life to studying this book I did not want.
It is truly amazing how God works. On occasion I wonder what my life would have been like had I not been given both the gift of that Bible and the challenge to read it. Such thoughts are not profitable, however, because I was given it and I did read it. What I did not understand at the time was that each passage of the Scriptures are a gift. They contain deep and living waters for our soul. Many people seek for answers to life’s questions from many other sources. Unfortunately these other sources cannot lead us to salvation but instead lead us away from God and His salvation.
I would like to challenge you to pick up your Bible and read it. Read it regularly and read it seriously. Ask God the Holy Spirit to teach the truth of what you read. Read until its passages leap off of the page into your understanding. My hope and prayer is that like me you will find within the Bible a gift unwanted that will become treasured by you always.
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