Growing up I thought the bible was boring and reading it was a waste of time. Every summer during high school right after bible camp I would decide to read my bible every day. I don’t know what I read, but it never seemed that interesting and it never lasted more than ten days. Then sophomore year of college came and someone told me to read Judges. Being a female who loves action movies, hockey fights, and occasionally UFC, I love Judges! Judges is a book all about fighting and tactics. If you’ve never read it before, you definitely should, at least read about Ehud (lefty) and Jael. After realizing the bible is anything but boring, I decided to read it in a year. Thanks to a wonderful reading plan, I finished the bible in 13 months (counting is hard).
What I learned from this (other than a ton of things actually written in the bible) is that I love the Old Testament. Exodus, Judges, 1 Samuel, Daniel…all pretty awesome. At the time, I found the new testament over used, especially the gospels. When I thought about the gospels, I thought about four redundant books full of stories I’ve heard my entire life. Let’s be real, Jesus making a blind man see, not that exciting or impressive after you’ve heard it 800 times.
Since most people love the New Testament, I decided to embrace my love of the Old one (which was quite easy since I love being different). Last fall I started my year long reading plan again, but forgot to bring it on the World Race with me (typical). So when I got to the DR I just starting reading whatever book I wanted. About three weeks into Haiti, I decided I should give the gospels another chance. So I started Matthew. Now, about 6 weeks later, I finished Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and to my surprise I loved them!
Molly, Svetta, Tabitha, Me, Kristin, Alicia
There are so many stories I didn’t remember and the ones that I’ve heard, I decided to actually think about. For example in John 9 there’s a man born blind. So, Jesus comes along, spits in mud and rubs it on the man’s eyes. Then Jesus tells him where to go wash it off and when he does he can see. Okay, now let’s think about it: imagine being a disciple. There’s a man who was born blind. He’s never seen a thing in his life. You walk up to him with Jesus who leans over, spits in some mud and rubs it on this man’s eyes. Spit and mud. Then he tells the man to go wash it off and then the man can see. He can see from spit and mud! I’m no doctor, but this has to be the farthest thing from a cure. But yet, it worked, it healed this man. That’s insane.
If that’s not impressive, imagine being that man. You were born blind. You’ve never seen a single thing in your lifetime. All of a sudden some man walks up to you. You hear him spit. Then you feel thick, wet mud getting rubbed all over your eyes. That doesn’t sound like the most pleasant thing in the world. But you accept it, because there’s not really anything you can do. Then the man tells you where to go wash it off. You happily go to the pool because you really want to wash the MUD off your face. You’re not expecting anything strange to happen, but when the water hits your face you begin to see light. Then shapes, colors, and then everything becomes clear. You’ve never seen a thing in your life and now thanks to a man, his spit, and some mud, you are healed and can see everything!
If that doesn’t impress you, go read it, John 9:1-12. If you’re still not excited, then I don’t think anything could make you excited because that, my friend, is insane. And the best part about the gospels (other than Jesus dying to save us) is what follows them: Acts. Acts is what tells us that people other than Jesus can perform miracles and that after Jesus left the earth, miracles continue to happen. And they still happen.
Three months ago, I read Revelation three times. I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s intriguing and exciting and just crazy. But that’s just one small part of God’s word. So, I prayed that I would get excited about everything in God’s word. I guess He started answering my prayer. Next step: get excited about Leviticus.
