20 years in the past I purchased my first Bible. I wasn’t a Christian on the time and I didn’t purchase it as a result of I used to be knowingly on any type of non secular journey. Though I had participated within the Alpha program at a good friend’s church and we’d had discussions across the religion, I wasn’t in search of Jesus. In actual fact, I wasn’t actually focused on whether or not or not there’s or isn’t a God.
So why did I purchase this Bible? Nearly as good associates do, my associates and I’ve at all times loved poking enjoyable at each other. It’s how we present we care. So, I made a decision to purchase a Bible to make enjoyable of my good friend based mostly on issues I learn within the Bible.
However there was an issue: studying it didn’t give me ammunition to tease my good friend. As a substitute, the extra I learn the extra fascinating Jesus turned. The best way he was depicted was so not like something I had seen in popular culture (which was my major publicity to him in any manner). There was a gravity to him. A seriousness, not within the sense of him being dour, however that all the things he did and stated mattered. He was deliberate. Compassionate. Authoritative. Unignorable, even.
And as I learn, I couldn’t get him out of my head. I had to determine what to do with him. And whereas rather more may be stated about what occurred alongside the way in which (and I’ve shared quite a lot of it in totally different locations), I turned a Christian two and a half months later.
So, in the event you ever wished to know if God had a humorousness, there’s your reply.
You don’t know what is going to occur while you begin studying the Bible
After I first walked into that Christian bookstore that occurred to be simply down the street from my home, I didn’t anticipate to be the place I’m right this moment. Working for a non-profit in search of to alleviate poverty within the lives of youngsters wasn’t my plan. Nor was enjoying a job in stewarding a Bible research curriculum utilized by hundreds of thousands each week. Ditto writing books, serving church buildings, and all the things else I’ve had the chance to do over the past 20 years.
However that’s typically what occurs while you begin studying the Bible—it modifications your life.
After I first walked into that Christian bookstore that occurred to be simply down the street from my home, I didn’t anticipate to be the place I’m right this moment. Working for a non-profit in search of to alleviate poverty within the lives of youngsters wasn’t my plan. Nor was enjoying a job in stewarding a Bible research curriculum utilized by hundreds of thousands each week. Ditto writing books, serving church buildings, and all the things else I’ve had the chance to do over the past 20 years.
However that’s typically what occurs while you begin studying the Bible. God can use it to alter your life in some fairly surprising methods.
My hope for many who are shopping for a Bible for the primary time
And I feel that’s why I’ve no small diploma of cautious optimism concerning the future, particularly once I take into consideration the explosion in Bible gross sales in 2024. Gross sales that have been fueled largely by first-time consumers.
I don’t know why these folks purchased a Bible for the primary time. Some are undoubtedly youthful folks on the lookout for solutions to the disaster of which means that permeates Western society. There’s a curiosity—and perhaps even a need—driving them. However others could also be extra like I used to be 20 years in the past: folks merely on the lookout for ammunition to make enjoyable of a Christian they know.
However no matter their causes, I hope they open their Bibles. That they learn them. They usually discover one thing they didn’t anticipate. That they encounter the Jesus who’s, versus the one they’ve solely heard of. Compassionate. Deliberate. Authoritative. The Son of God who’s God and was with God at first (John 1:1-2), and gave his life for us.
It’s simple for us to overlook the facility of one thing that appears so easy. However easy doesn’t imply powerless. Studying the Bible is highly effective—it actually can change an individual’s life. Let’s embrace that, and belief that God will do what he does by means of his phrase: introducing folks to the Jesus they can’t ignore.
The Jesus who’s, and who will change their lives.
Picture by Aaron Owens on Unsplash
