I often get annoyed with myself because I sometimes have such a relaxed view of scripture. I get the old ''been there done that'' attitude. This morning, for example, I was reading about Christ feeding 5000 people, then walking on water, then healing lots of people, and then feeding 4000 more people. Yup, ''been there done that!'' I breezed through these verses very quickly because they are very familiar to me, as if I could learn nothing new from them. As a matter of fact the above is about all I would have gotten out of this section of scripture had it not been for the desire God has put in my heart to know his word. I praise Him for that desire! Had Christ performed any one of these miracles today could you just imagine the buzz? People all over would be tweeting, blogging, changing statuses and youtubeing (I'm sure that is not a word, but you get my point). There would be pictures and video streaming across the Internet. The world would know almost instantly.
Even if these things were to happen today Christ would have gotten the same reaction. We still would have accused him of blasphemy, or said that it was by the power of Satan that he was able to do the things he did. We still would have plotted and lied and eventually, we would have killed him.
Because these things happened to long ago it is difficult for me to imagine them really happening, but they did. These wonderful things that Christ did to authenticate his ministry were nothing compared to what he did for me on the cross. He died so that I may live. He suffered so that I do not have too. He took my sin upon himself, took the punishment on himself so that when God looks upon me He sees his son and not my filth.
We have been given a great gift that is the Word of God! Read it and study it carefully! Let us not just breeze through a section of scripture. Let us see what God has for us today everyday!
4 comments:
Well-said. The temptation is there to gloss over familiar passages. One of the things I have purposed to do this year is to go over the passages that are less familiar to me... I have found that this often brings greater light to the "familiar."
Good post. Thanks.
Jason,
Thanks for the comment. I too have been looking at scripture that is less familair though often it has been good to revert back to old favorites!
Boy, you make a great point, Rob. I've done the same thing. What I've been trying to do is slow down in those familiar places of Scripture and let the Spirit bring new depths of meaning to my heart! :) Hmmm. I think you've just inspired my next post!
Blaine,
Thanks, and I look forward to reading your next post!
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