Series: Call Me
John 1:1-5 ESV
Exodus 19:18-19 AMP
John 1:1 NCV
From the time I was given my first Bible I loved that book best. That says a LOT because I loved my books! I had dolls but they didn’t teach me things. My books did.
You need to know I was in third grade when I received my first Bible. It had pictures, which was nice but since I’ve been an avid reader since I was in first grade I cared more about the words that the pictures.
I remember a feeling of overwhelming happiness when I was given my very own Bible book.
You need to understand that my dad read his Bible almost all the time. He did watch Gunsmoke and a few other westerns but he spent a lot of time studying for his Sunday School lesson.
That’s why I knew the Bible wasn’t just another book. I knew it was extra special!
When I first started reading my Bible I started at the beginning and read the stories. I had heard many of the stories in Sunday School but being able to read the whole story by myself was a wonderful blessing.
John 1:1-5 tells us, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
I can’t say when I started reading my Bible I understood everything. Actually the opposite was true. If I would have read the first part of John 1 I would have thought the Word was my Bible because my Sunday School teacher referred to the Bible as the Word of God. I didn’t think to ask my dad what The Word referred to (because I thought I knew what it meant).
I’m not sure any of that mattered to God when I was nine years old.
I think God loved it that I cherished my Bible and I read it whenever I had a minute.
Fast forward several years and my dad taught me to pray before I read my Bible. So, I would say a simple prayer and ask God to help me.
Once’s again I’m not sure when I was in upper elementary school I understood what I was doing, but since my dad said to pray first I prayed first.
By the time I was in junior high school I understood the Bible was holy. It was special. I knew God spoke specifically to my dad when he read his Bible.
I thought everyone knew and believed that when we take time to listen to God when we read the Bible God will help us to understand it.
I had some understanding (rudimentary as it was) that God will reveal things when we pray and read the Bible.
The most important thing praying and reading scripture did was that it gave me a desire to pray, read, and listen.
The Word mattered to me.
I need to say that at that point time I still didn’t understand the full meaning of what the Word meant.
I was about to learn.
I married a budding seminarian in my early twenties and he asked me if I could type his papers (mostly because I could decipher his cursive writing.) Those were the days before computers were used in the home so I typed his papers on an old fashioned typewriter. I was pretty fast on the typewriter and I didn’t mind typing his papers. I did not know what a blessing I would receive from typing those pages!
It turned out that those papers helped to formulate my theology. Even though I was t a student and I didn’t write the papers, I received the benefit of his work.
Gradually I learned more about what specific scriptures meant. I also learned how to do the research by reading his Seminary textbooks. I thought it was a win-win because everything I learned made me want to learn more. He was also taking Koine Greek in seminary and his papers included references to the original language. By typing his papers I learned that the Gospel of John differed in some ways from Matthew, Mark, and Luke which are Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John focused more on concepts that help us to believe.
Exodus 19:18-19 says, “Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. And it happened, as the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with [a voice of] thunder.”
God answered the Word in the thunder.
The Word wasn’t just a word like we think of a word. It was God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning there was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The Word was God.
The Word called to them.
See…the Word wasn’t just a word like we use words. The Word in Exodus 19 and in John 1 WAS God.
It’s Holy.
Well, back to my learning journey. Just when I thought it was over God tapped me on the shoulder one day and told me to go to Seminary. I was 54 years old. I was divorced. I had a full time job and no other means of support.
I told God it wasn’t possible and it was a crazy bad idea.
But here’s the thing. God is in the business of making crazy ideas possible. At first I said “no way” but God did not give up. Within a short amount of time God made ‘no way’ The WAY. I actually sent in my application to Seminary late on a Thursday night late in August of 2007. I figured it would take them weeks to respond.
They faxed a letter of acceptance to the office at my church by 10 a.m. the next morning.
So…off to Seminary I went. Just a note, because I had the benefit of knowing some Koine Greek (the language of the New Testament) I thought I would continue learning Greek. But God pressed me to take Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament).
I graduated seven years later. The Word God gave me “GO” was God and I am blessed every day because of it!
Spiritual Practice: Choose a scripture
Read and LISTEN to God’s Word for you!
In God, Deborah
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