For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
When many of my schoolmates received Bibles at our 8th grade graduation, I was pleasantly pleased to note that I was not a big-time church attender. I felt so sorry for those who got such a gift. To get a Bible for graduation would be, to me, like not getting anything. I felt sorry for the six or seven that a Bible was what they got.
Of course, you know that I soon changed my story by the time I was in my early twenties. The Bible took on a new life for it was alive; living and active. I'm sure I had been told such many times when in Sunday School, but I just wasn't grasping the connection.
There seems to be a Bible glut in America. While very many are read and studied, it might be that more are not. Rather than inspiring hearts and transforming lives, the latter merely collects dust while serving as a family memento.
The difference made in whether one reads the Bible, or has determined not to, is found in one of the words in the title of this post; expect.
If one expects to discover great secrets of spirituality in the study of the Bible, new and explosive insight will result. But choosing not to dwell in it because one expects nothing from it; then nothing is what one gets.
The Bible causes problems in churches; of all places! Because it is living and active, the Bible student will perpetually learn new things from God. Those who view the Word of God as something to quote but not to cause change will find themselves eventually opposing the very Bible they present as Truth.
We should expect new information to arise anytime we read. Churches (with Bibles in hand) have made a shift from learning to proving. Proving is both permissible and valuable; but only if it is used with minds open to receive His continued instruction. Otherwise, the Bible becomes a hatchet to chop anything which would threaten what we once concluded.
Faith approaches the Word with expectation. Doubt approaches the same text with caution that all learning from God has happened and we are now to preserve that which a select few in our past told us we were to believe. Church members must guard against the temptation to read the Bible only to get it to support our stances.
I am amazed and astonished at the wondrous good news of God which keeps arising from simply looking at these pages of divine inspiration. To this date, after years of study, I can state that I must only be in kindergarten regarding studying the Bible. Too, I remain wide-eyed at the things to grasp which have not yet occurred to anyone.
The Bible is new and we are new. I urge you to read the Word of God expecting to learn something you have never noted before. Bible students must have courageous hearts for God's Truth is not for sissies. It will continually take us into zones we may have vowed we would never enter.
Expect to learn something from your Bible....and you will. Expect to learn nothing...and you won't. The difference is found in the faith or non involved as one reads.
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