January 17, 2016

As you read the bible, I hope you are looking for one of the most amazing aspects of this G-d we hardly know – and that is how Amazing is Our G-d’s Grace. It begins with Adam and Eve – right out of the shoot, they are disobedient – and though G-d could smite them and start again, instead they are sent forward into the world, still to experience the Grace of G-d. And then the Grace of G-d is unleashed into the world.

Our reading of the Bible should be geared with an ear toward learning to always be stunned at what we learn about God and never at how much we know. I often talk to people who obviously know the Bible through and through, quoting scripture and having that smug pride about their knowledge. However, I often have to question whether they know G-d, at least the words about G-d, but do not understand that G-d is a G-d of Grace, and this, I think, is what G-d wants us to know about G-d. We should always be amazed by God, especially by G-d amazing Grace.

I don’t think we have ever lived in a time where we know as much about the universe as we know today. Listening to a story recently about the amazing discoveries that are happening at the Large Hadron Particle Collider, they are exploring what the world looked like milliseconds after the “Big Bang”. Think about that. Unless you are a seven-day creationist and believe that the world is only 6000 years old, or something like that, imagine getting close to the actual beginning of everything. As such, although we think we are getting closer to understanding the works of G-d, G-d still remains as mysterious as ever. The Bible itself is worth our intensive study, not so we can brag about how much we have read, but so we can live into the amazing Grace that the stories of the bible prove about G-d.

As you read the bible, be absolutely amazed at what you learn about G-d – G-d’s love for G-d’s people and the Grace that is evident in all G-d’s works.

Pastor Dave