Crazy thoughts....at 11:48pm

Over the past few weeks of studying, preparing for messages for students and learning more and more as I go, I find myself tonight wondering....wondering about the precious words of the Bible. You are probably wondering where I am going with this. As a Christ-follower, my source of strength and purpose comes from knowing Christ but also I get that strength from a powerful book called the Bible. Tonight, let's just say I laid everything down that I thought I knew about the Bible and started over. No preconceived ideas about this or that but I could open and read the love letters how they were intended to be read. You are probably going, you are weird and yes, I have been called that a time or two...but the point I am getting at is I think that myself, along with many others, we have become calloused in our thinking of how the words of the Bible can truly impact our lives if we could just hold true to them. We become quick to overlook and say "eh, I know the outcome" and so therefore we have lost the true, live changing message that Bible offers. This whole series of prayer that I have been studying has really opened my eyes to look for the amazing details that are embedded within the words of Scripture. No, there is no secret Da Vinci code if you read John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16 together standing on your head in a corner. Sorry. But the beauty of the words and poetry that makes the pages come alive I feel at times I have passed them by. I will be the first to say that I have overlooked Scripture many times to say "yep, got it covered"....oh you Pharisee! So I ask a few questions to whomever reads this: would we be willing to start over? Could we take everyday as if we were starting from the very first time we opened the Word of God? To come with a passion and eagerness to allow the Spirit to speak to our hearts in that moment? I know it might be a stretch for some of us, but I think that if we can come with a passion to understand the truth of what the Bible has to say to us, then we might, just might, fall deeper in love with Christ!

Philippians 3:12