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Written by Aaron Sparks
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Sunday, 18 January 2009 14:02 |
I just got a new Bible. I’ve been quite excited about it. It has several study helps within it so I can have those resources on hand in one large book. There’s something great about getting a new Bible as well. The smell of treated leather, the crispness of the pages, the shiny stuff they put on the outside of the pages, and all those verses that haven’t been underlined or notes that haven’t been made yet.
If one year from now, you see my now new Bible and it still has that shine on the pages, and they’re crispy white with no creases... you might wonder why I even bothered getting a new bible.
I remember when Jen and I were still dating, we spent many months apart while we each were going through college. We kept in touch with emails, instant messaging, phone calls, and good ole fashioned handwritten letters on paper sent with a stamp. In fact, I still have those letters in a shoe box. When I got a letter, I would pour over it, reading each sentence carefully all the way through. Then I might read it again, just to dwell on what she had just said. I studied those letters.
What would it have said about our relationship if, instead of reading the letters I got from Jen, I promptly put them directly in my Adidas shoebox. Besides the fact that you would think I’m a really strange person for not reading letters but still kept them... you’d probably question my genuine love for Jen.
I relate the Bible a lot to those old love letters. While I was away from Jen, they were a great comfort in affirming her love for me and a source of getting to know her better. I’ve heard the Bible illustrated as God’s love letter to us. It makes sense doesn’t it? Even though the authors were humans writing an account of their encounters of God... God still makes a his presence known as the Executive Editor in the form of his Holy Spirit guiding the words written down.
If you claim a love for God, doesn’t that mean you would want to get to know our God better? Doesn’t it mean you would want to know what pleases him? Doesn’t it mean you would get a joy from the words of comfort God offers us?
You see, we should study the Bible, not because we can then declare a superior knowledge of his word and thus proclaim ourselves always right. We should study the Bible, because it’s God’s word. He reached out to us and let us know his character. He let us know that he loves us and showed us how far he’s willing to go to spend eternity with us. The Bible, is God’s perfect love letter written for you. Why wouldn’t you read that?!? |
