Eat This Book

I attend Two Rivers Church regularly (and have for around three years now), and the church has committed to an entire year of reading and preaching through the Bible from cover to cover. The "movement" is so cleverly named Eat This Book. As of today, collectively and individually, most of us are up to Numbers Chapter 17. 

And let me tell you, it's been rough.

I'm not some sort of religious go-getter. Even though I grew up in church, I feel like sometimes Christians - like the ones who sing hallelujah and point out their neighbors' wrongs and look in the mirror and say, "aren't I wonderful? - completely miss the forest for the trees. Do you catch my drift? It just doesn't seem real. There's something missing. Namely, Jesus. When this whole Eat This Book thing started at Two Rivers, I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. I mean what about the spontaneous movement of God through spontaneous scriptural readings (like I was doing much of those anyway) or the fact that you have to read a certain amount EVERYDAY or you will get sorely behind (a big leap from a couple of verses a day) or how am I supposed to hear the voice of God in relation to my modern walk with Christ through the genealogy of Jacob and such and such and what's his face (I mean my daily sometimes walk, sometimes stumble, sometimes crawl, sometimes turn around and say "Screw this"). Let's just say God grabbed me and shook me up a bit and said, "Listen to me. I want you to do this."

I cannot explain what God has been teaching me through this. Even the most ridiculous things that I would have yawned through before are speaking to me. For instance, in Leviticus when God gives all of the instructions for how to build his holy tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, he says to bring the most skilled artists and spinsters and weavers. And I saw for the first time how completely divine an artist's talent is and how it pleases the God of the Universe. How beauty is essential when speaking of God. When it says that Moses was the humblest man on earth, tears welled up in my eyes because it showed me how proud I am. When God sent the quail to the Israelites because they complained about not having meat (so that each person took away more than a ton of quail to him/herself), I saw how much I complain about what I do not have and felt gratitude for God's discipline. Today I read that the earth swallowed up Korah and his followers and they fell into the depths of Sheol. Alive. And I did not feel anger at God like I may have before in my ignorance. Instead I felt thankfulness that his goodness always prevails and NOTHING stands in the way of his divine plan. 

I can't wait to see what he speaks to me next. I've been like a forest whose streams had nearly dried up. And I must confess that these words, this book, is like a wild storm that has brought me to my knees with fear and trembling. But it is bringing the rain. I will be restored.