Have any of you tried to read your way through the Bible? I kinda am right now. For someone who likes to be organized I am in no way going about it in a uniform way. I read a whole book through and then move on to another one somewhere else in my Bible. For instance, right now I am reading Job. Before that, I had just finished up with the minor prophets, then Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. I am not even sure that I am naming those in order of my reading. Either way, I am getting through.
Something else I am doing is using these Bible highlighters that are made out of wax. It keeps the color from bleeding through the thin pages. I have 6 colors that I keep all in order of the rainbow (at least that is organized) and I use them based on different things that I am looking for. I use green for promises, blue for anything about the new & old covenant, pink for God's compassion & love, yellow for semi interesting ideas, orange for "IT's AWESOME" or anything to do with the mind, sight, or light, and then finally purple is my miscellaneous wild card (there are so many awesome things in the Bible so I don't want to make it too orange). Using the highlighters helps me know that I completed something as well as give me something to go back to.
I have been pretty happy with my system, but right now I am stumped. Being in Job I thought it would really move me, but I find it hard to highlight anything that Job's friends say because... well... they weren't really nice. It has left me a little confused. Why does God leave something that isn't necessarily His Truth and Light to grace the pages of His love letter? Because of my fear of highlighting and coming back later to interpret that one verse wrong, it got me thinking.
I then went out for a run and started to contemplate what I read in Job. It's at one point in the conversation with the friends that Job goes on a rant about how the good and wicked both die. That we are all in the same boat. No one is discriminated under God's hands. This made me realize that no matter where I go in life, there will be things to discern. The Truth will not always come prepackaged, wrapped in a blue bow, and addressed to us Christians. We have to do a little wading through the muck to get through to the good stuff. The good will sometimes look like the bad and vice versa.
Sometimes we have to face situations that are like Job's not-so-friends in order to really understand the true definition of God's character and His Light. Not to mention that we need to continually ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. Our own minds are tainted by sin! But here is the happy part. :) Because of the experience that Job had, one that the devil put him through, he came out stronger in his faith and was blessed even more than before the trial!
Being stumped doesn't always mean an end. Sometimes it is only the beginning of a blessing that is so outside of our imagination, that we can only deem it possible when it happens. Keep reading friends!
