A Good Read

One of my absolute favourite things is reading.

 

I can happily lose myself in a good book for hours on end.  I love how I can get lost between the pages.  I love the vivid descriptions of places which carry me away.  I love the detailed depictions of characters, which are so realistic, it is as if I know them as real people.

 

I have been reading a really good book over the last few days and am just pages from the end, but I've been deliberately reading slowly, longing for it to last a little bit longer because I'm enjoying it so much.

 

There are very few books that I will read over and over.  I tend to think there are so many I want to read, why waste my time?  But there are some which I will happily lose myself in again and again and again because I love them so much.

 

I was talking with a friend the other day about our attitude to reading books and reading the Bible and how different they often are. 

 

Often we can feel reluctant to read the Bible, because we feel that we've read bits of it before.  Some of us have even read the whole thing before.  We know what happens.

 

But when we read the Bible, it is not so much reading a book as entering into a conversation.  Each time we come to read it and re-read it and re-re-read it, it speaks to us in a different way.  Different words and verses and passages stick out and resonate with us when we had simply skipped over them in the past.  New meanings and implications strike us with every reading.

 

Because it is the living word of God.

 

"For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

[Hebrews 4:12 NIV]

 

 

When we read the Bible we are not just reading a dusty old book written by an ancient author.   We are reading the words of our living God, the creative author of our lives.

 

Now that's a good read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doughnuts

The only thing that I don't like about eating a doughnut is having someone nearby say, "Try to eat it without licking your lips!"

 

I have tried this once and only once.

 

And I only got a few mouthfuls in before I stopped. 

 

I find it the most irritating thing ever.  I don't like the feeling of sticky sugar coating my lips and making them feel fuzzy.  There is nothing at all enjoyable about the challenge.

 

I don't like the feeling of sugar on my lips.  But the Bible urges us to keep something on our lips, without wiping it away: His Word.

"Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful."

[Joshua 1:8 NIV]

 

There is not much point reading something and instantly forgetting it, letting it dissolve before it has taken root.  In the same way, we should keep God's words constantly in our minds and our hearts and on our lips.

"But don’t just listen to God’s word.  You must do what it says.  Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.  For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.  But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it."
 

[James 1:22-25 NLT] 
 

God urges us not to just to read and remember and obey His words, but to always have them on our lips. To keep them on the tip of our tongues, to let them flavour the words we use.

 

In the same way that the sugar can't help but stick to our lips when we eat a doughnut, I want God's Word to stick to my heart and to stick to my lips, every time I read it.