Which book?

According to Guinness World Records as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed.

Have you read it?

If you have a copy, could dust be blown off the cover?

Yeah, mine had that problem too.

In fact, J.I. Packer, in Knowing God challenges us to admit it if we don’t love reading our bibles.

To not put our backs to our dusty bibles and to our vague feelings of guilt. “I SHOULD love reading this book but ACTUALLY,” we think…

I realized that even though I have been a Christian for decades, I hated reading the Bible.

(!)

This honesty, like all honesty, proved key to finding my true joy.

I asked for help from the older couple in the church.

You know the ones.

They have been sitting at the back of the church for decades. They attend the prayer meetings. They loved you the first day you arrived.

I asked them why they love to read their Bibles.

At their encouragement, they suggested that I read The Psalms and highlight words that seemed to stand out to me.

How do we read the Bible with Holy Spirit at our sides, nudging our elbows as we read? How does the Bible come alive in our hearts?

I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. The Message

I diligently highlighted a mishmash assortment of odd words that seemed to be highlighted in my soul as I read: Deep. Water. Heart.

And I was still confused.

“God! If you are trying to speak to me, could you please be clear!!”

But [the disciples] didn’t get it, could make neither heads nor tails of what he was talking about. The Message

If the disciples were always confused when Jesus was speaking, why couldn’t I also expect confusion when Holy Spirit may be speaking to me?

But speaking He was.

When the guest speaker showed up at our church many months later singing a new song that she had created, with the theme of many of these words that I had highlighted in my Bible, I knew God was whispering to my heart.

That is His way.

God delights in concealing things The Message

He doesn’t want to bark a clear order to obey, but to pour a little rain into our parched souls, that awakens our hearts and gives a spring to our steps. His words refresh as His love sinks a little deeper into the soil of our hearts.

He clothes His words in love so that we have to come to Him again and again, asking for understanding. And a little of His love sticks each time we run back to Him.

And without our knowing it, as we allow the rain to sink deep, fruit is produced in our lives.

This fruit nourishes us and others.

And makes us run back to His word again and again.

We are hungry.

And we receive nutrients from His word.

Are you hungry? Do you also, like me, need to come off the baby’s diet of milk, and learn to eat?

You’re . . . capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. The Message

And when we learn to enjoy solid food, then reading the bible and prayer gets exciting.

Joy is coming. Do you feel it?

Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? The Message