07/02/2018 - The Eternal Adventure of a Lifetime
Yesterday I listened as one of my Pastors delivered a sermon on the subject of interruptions, and during it he talked about a section of scripture comprised of a story within a story... one story that interrupted another. As he continued to preach, my mind left on a different route, and the complexity of God’s word dominated my thoughts.
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”
Psalms 119:130 ESV
As Christmas approached last year, and school ended for the season, I was thinking about my grandchildren and how they would spend their time each day. Then I remembered a series of books (over 150 in all) called the “Choose Your Own Adventure Series”, and I bought each of their families a box set which containing several of these books.
This type of adventure book was created by Edward Packard, and is designed for children. As they read they can choose different paths through the book, and by doing so the story changes. The books typically have between 8 and 44 different endings. So a simple children’s book becomes a complex and multilayered adventure which entertains them for many hours as the child reads and rereads the various endings.
The Bible is similar... not that we can pick and choose our own various paths through it, but that we are lead to new discoveries each and every time we walk with God through its pages. Our life of faith is blended with the words on the pages, and the outcome is a revelation, and an increased understanding of God’s Word. In this way our insight into the Holy Word is not fixed, or stagnant, but alive, and as endlessly changing as is the faith we are living and bringing into it each day. In this way, the Bible isn’t opened, but unfolded.
“The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”
Proverbs 20:5 ESV
Each time we venture into scripture we draw out new wisdom, a new understanding of God, and a deeper insight into our purpose within His plan... His will. Do we even understand the journey we are about to embark upon when we unfold the Bible before us? I think that most of us reread the Bible to refresh our memories, but somewhere in our reading... God changes the rules, and we go on a different and often thrilling adventure with Him. He takes the place we currently occupy in our faith, and begins to lead us on from there. In truth, if we were to stop reading, then we would stop living as well.
There is another book that I am reminded of... The Never Ending Story by a German author, Michael Ende. You might have seen the 1984 movie by the same name. It is a fantasy in which a boy begins to read a magical book and finds himself drawn into it, and a world there called Fantasia. The implication is that the book and the boy become one and the same; every time he begins to read he finds that the story is about him. He is the protagonist, and lives out the adventure.
Isn’t this the Bible? At first the stories appear to be about characters such as Adam and Eve, or Moses, Noah, and a host of others, but as we read on, we find that it is really about us. The Bible takes lives of antiquity, and ancient faith, then makes them real in our own existence and faith. We become like the boy Bastion in The Never Ending Story, and find ourselves folded into the very pages we are reading.
The Bible is a mystery. It was written over centuries, authored by many different men, lived out by cultures as different from each other as we are to them today, and compiled and brought together by yet others who were warned not to contribute a single word to it. But in all of this, we find a spirit running through it that is singularly undeniable... The Holy Spirit, and it brings the book alive within us. The complexity and story it tells of us never ends, and the truth it reveals in our lives and faith is so deep that we are unable to fathom it in its entirety... there is always more that awaits. Are you ready to embark on the eternal adventure of a lifetime?
“and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:15-17 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Word, and the mystery which makes it at once steadfast, and yet changes me each time I read from it. Thank you for the journey I travel within these Holy pages as I unfold them before me, and ask for your insight into them. You are Great Father, and I am bound breathless to the wonders you reveal to me with each passing day, and each turning page. How is it Holy Father that you are able to take the lives of men and women from so long ago and place me into them? How is it that lessons of ancient times can speak so perfectly to me in this day and age? Speak to me always Lord, and never cease your instruction. Teach me of my faith, and guide me within your will. Strengthen me Father so that I will never grow weary of your Word, nor my life that is contained within its pages. Your ways thrill my heart, and your revelations sweep me into places I have never dreamed of visiting... lead me on into the eternity that awaits me at your feet. Write my life Heavenly Father, and give me insight into your desire for me as your hand moves across the page. You are intricate, and my life bears witness to you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who takes what was, what is, and what will forever be, and walks me through it fresh, as if new each day.
Rich Forbes