Before I continue, I want you to picture the most gorgeous place, person or thing in the universe. I want you to visualize it as completely as you can. Now make a mental picture, inhale and imagine the smells, pause and remember the sounds that fill up the space around, and lastly, I want you to think about how it made you feel. For me, I don't know what to picture first. My mind wanders from various places as diverse as the people that live within them. This time it is Guatemala. I picture being in a rickety old van, without seat belts. Driving on dirt roads as smooth as the three years in middle school (aka it was rough), through miles of green fields and forests. The sky seems to never end, and at night the stars were truly a sight to behold. It still puts me in awe, years later.
Now, as wonderful as this creation is, how much more wonderful is it's creator? As a Christian, do you really comprehend what it means to follow a God? An all-powerful God that has been here for all the ages? A God who is, by your beliefs, the only god, and it turns out this God wants a relationship with you. What kind of follower, believer, child of such a living God can we be without being in the word (and often)? The Bible offers a message of both wonders, power, loss and God's majesty, along with the love, hope, reconciliation and new birth. In order to thrive in this world, and to truly know what it means to experience a life changed by Jesus Christ, you need to flip open some pages.
The Bible, God-centered, God-Inspired, allows for us to Grow to be our best selves. It does this, however, by growing in a relationship with Jesus. By taking just part of your day to read, pray and meditate on the word, it could change your thought patterns for the rest of the day. These small changes eventually cultivate a big impact, but only with time. Joshua 1:8 says "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." It is within the bindings of these covers that allows you to be able to just begin to grasp onto all the wonders God has in store for us, better than anything we could ever imagine.
The Bible is also a small light in a world of darkness. It is a path, a guide. Through considering what as been described as an object "breathed out by God" (the essence of the Lord and holy living), it is then, and only then you can begin to be obedient to his calling and to worship. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the message of reconciliation...and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." In today's time, there is a lot that the world leaves grey, when in God's eyes, there is a stark difference between the black and the white. How can we be able to know, act in and defend what is right, if we do not make the time to learn exactly what "right" is?
Furthermore, the Bible was not written to end up sitting on your desk. It is not meant to be dusted off on Sundays. The Bible is meant to be studied, and then immediately shared! Wake up! It's the good news! "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Did you catch that? The Bible and the story of God's love is not limited to our good actions and pleasant attitudes. Spending time in the word with others is in fact a way to worship your creator (and bonus, you could be changing peoples lives!)
So, this Valentines Day, set a date with the Ultimate Love Story of All Time and set your mind on something more than dinner and a movie. It's something that will bloom more beautifully in your life than any bouquet of roses.
