B.I.B.L.E.

Apparently the Bible's worldwide status has now been upgraded to "Basic Information Before Leave Earth"

~~~~~~~~~

In my reading this morning God impressed upon me the fact that the book I was holding in my hands was one that could cost me my life if I lived in some other parts of the world. How often do we take the scriptures as granted? I have several different Bibles sitting on my desk and I really only use one of them and even the one I use the most doesn't get cracked open as much as it ought to.

And there lies the crux of it. When I read the Bible am I reading it because I ought to or because I absolutely need to? Because for the underground church in China and many churches in other parts of the world, where if they are caught with a Bible they are put in prison and even killed, they need their Bibles. Isn't it funny that they are risking their lives for the very thing that will get them killed? I don't think it's funny or crazy, just radical. We see it as radical because they wholly depend on the scriptures just to get to tomorrow. They are waking up to a life of persecution while clutching their Bibles, reading it, teaching it, living it. And here I sit. I don't search the scriptures out of a deep need for them because I don't consider God's power in and through them. For the underground churches all over the world, they are not reading their Bibles because they have been guilt tripped that week by a pastor. If they are not searching for God in his word, then they have nothing. And here I sit.

If the Scriptures are just seen as basic information before we die then what's the stinking point? When your best friend as a nine-year old is thrown from a vehicle and dies because he wasn't wearing his seat belt, or your brother doesn't come home from the war, or your mother is raped or... A basic information manual won't be able to address the deep anguish in our hearts in those situations.

I think we gloss over Bible reading the same way we might gloss over a video game or driving a car. It has become so automatic in the church to just "know" that we ought to read the Bible that we have become numb to the fact that clinging to God and His word is a radical thing. When we do read, it is often out of a feeling of obligation or Christian karma where if we would read the Bible then God will be pleased with us. Our Bible reading, when we do read it, has become as routine as driving to church. Most of us take the same route to church every Sunday. Many times I have gotten in the car to go somewhere and upon reaching my destination, pause and think, "I don't remember any of this. How did I get here?" It's because I was on autopilot. When my Bible reading is sporadic or nonexistent, it's usually because I don't consider the true power of God's word for and in my life.

I don't have a three step plan to fix this problem that all begins with the same first letter. I'm not proposing proof-texts to help you fix your lack of Bible reading. I am just confessing to not loving the Bible as much as I really do. I just know that the Bible really is more than just "Basic Information Before Leaving Earth" and that may not seem very radical anymore but I yearn to be a radical...

Who knows what the next post will be about.

-Zach