Friday, November 5, 2021

The Bible: A Limitless Ocean of Discovery

This morning in my Bible time, I read through the entire book of Hebrews in one sitting. There's a logical train of thought in the letter that you see only when you read the book this way. It took me two cups of coffee and about 1 hour, pausing to meditate on certain verses as I read. If you're interested in the average time it takes to read through a book of the Bible, this graphic might be helpful. (Source.) 

Jesus called us his "student-trainees." We are constantly sitting at his feet. That's why I think it's funny that some people think of me as a specialist or a scholar. I am a small child wading on the shore of a limitless ocean when I read my Bible. To use a gardening analogy, I imagine I've worked with my hands as often as many of you -- gardening, animal husbandry, slaughtering and butchering our own cattle and goats, raising crops, building fences, etc. As far as I'm concerned, that just makes me another "farmer." I'm certainly no "agricultural specialist." How can I be a "specialist " in the New Testament when I know only a fraction of what it teaches and obey it even less? 

Paul once asked, "Where is the scholar?" (1 Cor. 1:20). Any takers? Not me. Paul puts it this way in 1 Cor. 8:2: "Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't know very much." That says it all to me.

Care to join me on the shore of that limitless ocean?