I called one of my best friends in the Keys yesterday and asked him to check out our oceanfront house to make sure things are looking spiffy. We’ve rented it to a couple who will tie the knot there this week and I wanted someone I could trust to double check and make sure everything is tidy for them prior to their beach-side marriage ceremony. He said he would be happy to ride over and check it out prior to their arrival tomorrow.
Right before we got off the phone he told me that he wanted to thank me for something.
He and I were great friends for the entire six years that I lived in the Keys and we fished together often. I quite naturally assumed he was talking about all those great fishing tips and lessons that I gave him and although I thought his thank you for my excellent tutelage was long, long, overdue, I was prepared to accept it now.
He said, “I just wanted to thank you for convincing me to read the Bible. He went on to tell me that he’d never thought much about the Bible before meeting me. He’d been to church as a kid, but he didn’t think of the Bible as being real and certainly hadn’t made it a part of his life. He said that seeing “someone like me” reading and studying it daily encouraged him greatly and made it seem more real to him.
He said that at my urging he read his Bible in its entirety, and has now started studying it every morning after reading WFTD. He told me that it is amazing how God is opening up passages to him that are exactly the passages that he needs to hear at this particular time in his life. Then he told me something that was just so poignant that it made me tear up a little; he said, “The Bible is like a big beautiful flower that slowly opened up to full bloom for me”. (Jesus smiled on that metaphor I tell you.)
My buddy used to have a habit of drinking too much vino on occasion, and sometimes after hammering on the bottle a little too long he would call me late at night when he was obviously feeling no pain. He would make nonsensical remarks like trying to get me to get out of bed and go fishing or shrimping with him in the middle of the night, all the while slurring his words like he’d just experienced a stroke.
He told me, “I feel better now than I ever have. I’m walking several miles in the morning at the park, working out with weights, and I’ve completely stopped drinking, (even socially)”.
BOOM SON!
He went on to tell me, “Me, my wife, and kids are all getting along better now than ever before, and for the first time I’m really experiencing JOY in my life. I’m really hitting on all cylinders now Bob, and I just wanted to say thank you for being my friend.”
Aw-w-w-wwww…If my macho image wasn’t at stake I would’ve teared up a little on that one too. That was better than thanking me for being his fishing instructor all those years I tell you.
Hmmm… I have so-o-o-o many people tell me that the Bible and living the Christian life just seem far away and not real at all to them. I just find it hard to believe that they have actually read the Bible and given it the old college try. I especially find it difficult that they have read the New Testament and given it an objective, fair and balanced chance. My friend is not unusual and in fact he is experiencing the same peace and joy that millions of other people experience all over the globe including me.
My own life was the absolute pits before I read the Bible. I tried most everything the world has to offer including drugs, sex, alcohol, money, power, fame, thrill seeking, career building, chasing big deals, and most any material possession anyone could want, and yet the only way I’ve ever found peace and joy in my life was when I was close to Christ and burying myself in His word, prayer and His work every day.
I know without a doubt that following Christ and what He has laid out in the Bible works. I urge you to do as my friend and begin your own Bible study. Get a Living Translation version of the Bible and start reading in Romans. Then go to Matthew and read through the entire New Testament. Take your time and listen to your inner thoughts as you evaluate what God is telling you. Trust me you will achieve tremendous amazing results. The Bible is alive and active. That means you will find exactly what you need within its covers at the precise moment that you need it. Trust me – Give it a try – you will like it…
Hebrews 4:12
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.