In December 2006, following the celebration
of another birthday, I came to the conclusion that during the several
decades of life that God had blessed me with, that I had still not
honestly accomplished the one thing that I believe should be a priority
in our lives: To read the Bible completely. That is not to
say that I had not scanned the Bible, nor that I had not deeply studied
large sections of the Bible, but to be transparent and honest with
myself and with you, my previous readings of the Bible consisted of a
thorough reading of the exciting sections and a fairly quick scan of the
"drier" sections (for example sections of Leviticus and Numbers).
So I made a commitment to God that I would
read the Bible, word for word, straight through. In order to
remain accountable and avoid the temptation to scan, I chose to read the
Bible entirely out loud. Furthermore, to encourage myself to
complete the task, I recorded my readings...all of them, then uploaded
them (in order) to my
Soundclick.com website as MP3s, and, finally,
distributed the link to some of my brothers and sisters so that they may
keep me accountable as well. If you are interested in the
technical details of the process, I share them here.
So I began to read, and I prayed, and I read
some more, and I prayed some more...and eventually I completed the
reading. I discovered many things during the process, but it is
the paradox of the process that was most evident: I thought I was
preparing a personally challenging offering to God, when, in fact, God
was pouring out the blessings of His word into my heart.
Additionally, God was
using His Word, as He has from the creation, to reveal Himself.
The revelations I received through reading and studying the Word were
planned and planted in my heart by God so that I may know Him more.
So, rather than spending a great deal of effort learning the accurate
pronunciation of "Zelophehad" and "Thyatira" (as you will quickly surmise
if you listen), instead I focused on what God was trying to disclose to
me about Himself and His will. So I spent a lot of time reading
and then discerning what God was trying to share with me.
And one of the first items God disclosed
through His Word is:
We are set apart,
together (Click on the link to continue) |
