"A book that understands me"
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. (Hebrews 4:12 NLT)
The Bible is unlike any other book. It is not merely black ink on white paper. It's alive. It's what Timothy Keller describes as "a book that understands me."
The Bible is living & active. You can read the same verse over & over & find new insight. You can be newly convicted, newly inspired, newly moved, & newly worship every time you encounter it. Reading the Bible through year after year will produce excitement with every year. You will come across verses that you swear you have never read before. The Bible brings with it a freshness & a newness that other "old" books can't deliver. In this way it is a sweetness. It is living & active.
But it's not only a sweetness but a sword. It not only soothes but it also cuts. It has a way of not only getting to our action but what's under our actions. It not only deals with the thing but the thing under the thing. It deals with our motives & feelings. It not only touches the things outside of our lives but inside. It can even expose our thoughts & desires. It can affirm & convict in the same instance.
It truly is a book that understands us. Life begins to makes sense as we read the Bible. We find out who we are & what we are here for. Although it doesn't always offer answers to life's most difficult questions in a nice tidy package, we find our true meaning in the pages of the Bible. And, life's difficulties & difficult questions are better understood with the pages of Scripture enlightening them.
There is no book like it. And reading it brings a thousand rewards. Obeying it is even better.
Having read through it chronologically I can say I've seen things this year that I've never noticed. And, the things I've always known have come alive once more as precious truths.
So I hope this year is just the beginning for us as we read through the Bible regularly for the rest of our lives.
What have you most enjoyed about reading through the Bible this year? What are you looking forward to about reading through it again?
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