So we’ve read through the Bible in two years, and I’m trying to think of a good way to wrap things up.
When we were just getting ready to start this journey, I was in Gardnerville, NV, just before New Year’s, 2007. They had called me to be their associate pastor specializing in youth and family ministry. The ability to specialize in a certain area of ministry intrigued me. The spacious Carson Valley was stunning, with rugged foothills to the east and towering mountains to the west, leading up to one of the most beautiful spots on earth – Lake Tahoe. The setting and job description were enticing. For a variety of reasons, it wasn’t in God’s plan to go to that church. But one thing in particular made me especially reluctant to even think about leaving P.o.P. I was really looking forward to reading through the Bible in two years as a church.
I have been so blessed by this journey. I had no idea that it was going to require so much more preparation time. (Usually I choose between 20-40 verses to preach on for the weekly readings; now I was choosing between 5 – 15 chapters!) But for me, reading the Bible not only for my sake but in order to communicate it to others was a great experience. I not only read the Bible. I thought it through. Many things I had wondered about fell into place. Bible detractors talk about contradictions within its pages. Reading (and teaching and preaching) through the whole Bible raised a few questions for me, but brought far more answers. I rediscovered a God who is consistently holy, consistently just, consistently loving, and consistently good over the 4000 years of earth history the Bible covers.
What about you? Are you different than you were two years ago? Do you know God better, appreciate Him more, feel more: humbled; in awe; privileged to know Him; excited to share him?
What now? How do we follow up 2 years of studying the word? Well, if we think of the last 2 years as training time, now it’s time to get to work. Jesus, most scholars agree, spent 3 years training his disciples before sending them out to share what He had taught them. We have been given this “treasure in jars of clay,” the Bible calls it, referring to the Good News of Jesus (the treasure) that God has entrusted to weak, earthbound people (the jars of clay). It’s time to get the word out. We don’t learn it to win Bible trivia or hoard this treasure ourselves. We learn it to live it and tell it.
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