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I am teaching a Bible study that began this week and will run for six weeks.  It is so exciting to open the Word of God with new friends.  And yesterday, someone was asking me for a book recommendation.  I listed a few of my favorites, especially the ones I have used to prepare for the class I am teaching.

But what came to me was this: I have learned a lot of things from a lot of really good books; but I have learned the most from the Good Book.  

When I think of it, I have spent years and years reading the Bible.  Some here, some there.  Some years more than others.  Sometimes doing memory work, sometimes reading and just listening…waiting to hear something, something that was meant for ME.

And there were times I did reading plans, Bible studies and all those countless sermons I’ve heard.  I always take notes.  Funny, I do not keep the notes.  But, if I don’t write it down, I can’t keep it in my head – this is why I write – because it makes things stick.

All that time, I was looking for glimpses of…evidence of…Him in my life.  And somehow in all that looking, I found Him.  “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).  

The Word has come alive for me in the sense that it is like a family member, like an old friend, like my favorite teacher.  It has become part of me, as I have come to know it.  And I have seen it for what it is: an invitation to know Him – the Great I AM, the Triune God, The Creator/Elohim…the One who exists outside of time because He created time.

Taking the Word into my heart has transformed my Worldview…the way I see life.  I have found that when God’s Word became my compass and my measuring stick and my lens, this began to happen: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2, NLT).

Having a Biblical Worldview makes you different than many people.  A lot of people in this life don’t put much stock in God’s Word.  Believing it can make you stick out like a sore thumb.  I can even think of some churches where I felt that way!

I feel convinced, now more than ever, that this feeling of  “otherness”, the being “other” than those around us – as one called and set apart from the World…this is what I am supposed to teach my children.  Here is what Jesus taught His disciples: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

I don’t mean we should teach our kids to pull away from the world…just that we should teach them not to be swallowed up by it.  Because we were made in His image and when our lives do not reflect Him, we have lost sight of our purpose.  

So now, we read the Bible together voraciously.  We talk about the connections we see – how the ideas fit together, how the larger story (of the love of the Father and the rescue mission of Christ) is woven throughout the books.  We do our memory work together.

We look for Him in our lives.  We try to do things the way He teaches us to do them – this is how we know Him.  And when we start looking, we see Him everywhere and in everything.

Tell me, where have you seen Him lately?