Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Like No Other

An Inkling
I discovered afresh this morning just how good the Bible is, as I was reminded yet again that its riches, far from being exhausted, just keep going deeper.  There is no other book like it in that regard.  And that’s yet one more reason why I believe God inspired its writing.
The reminder came as I was reading in Andy Crouch’s new book, Playing God, and its exposition of John 2 and Exodus 20.  I know those passages cold.  I’ve studied, translated, preached, taught, and discussed them scores of times.  I really do know them cold.  And yet today there was something more – much more – to be received.
Indeed, as I thought about this, I realized that I’ve been a serious student of the Bible for 40 years now.  When the Lord graciously filled me with his Spirit at age 18, one of the first changes I noticed was a sudden hunger for the scripture.  I had read it dutifully, if sporadically, while growing up.  But from then on, I’ve been a diligent scripture student, and not so much from duty as from desire. 
This is no virtue.  It’s more Pavlovian than that.  The rewards are so regular and so good that God’s gift of desire has only grown.  I should check to see if I’m salivating.
It’s not that reading the Bible is extraordinary every day.  Most days it’s quite ordinary, and yet it’s always nourishing.  But today’s meal became a feast, complements of chef Crouch.  His book is more than worth a read.  These are not the only two passages for which he opens whole new vistas of insight.
If you’re a student of the Bible, you may have had this experience too – coming to a passage that you know cold, and by God’s grace having whole new insights emerge.  And judging from past experience, even today’s insights have not exhausted the wealth of those passages.  It just makes me hungry for more of the book like no other.
Come and dine!
Blessings,

Keith