One Vision

So our church is all reading the One Year Bible together – it's a Bible that's broken down into daily readings so you can get through the whole Bible in a year. We are just reading New Testament and Psalms though. And then on Sundays, the pastor has been asking different people to get up and talk about how doing the Bible readings (and attending small groups) has effected them.

Well, it was my turn last Sunday, and it was so cool because there are so many things God has been showing me as I've been reading my Bible again. But I only had like a minute and I didn't know which thing to say. But as we went through the service and various people participated in different things, each of them said one of the things I wanted to say, and it was as if God were saying to me, "You don't have to do it all. I'm going to use my whole body to bring my whole message." It was awesome to feel like God really is saying the same thing to so many of us, and like we really are of one mind in some essential ways.

Now I'll tell you what I told them yesterday. When we were given the invitation to read the One Year Bible (OYB) together, I hadn't been reading my Bible for almost a year and I didn't really expect to be able to make time for it now. But then I went to a mid-week service at a different church, and something about the speaker's simple message directly from scripture awoke something in me. And suddenly I was just so hungry for God. I came home and read that day's OYB passage, and I just couldn't get enough. I had to go back and start from the beginning – not to play catch-up, but just because I was so hungry for God's Truth. It was like a gulp of fresh water or a breath of fresh air. I feel so much more alive again, and so much more in touch with my Maker. The circumstances that keep me so busy haven't changed at all, but I manage to find time for the OYB reading now, not just because of this hunger in me for connection with God, but also because of my longing for connectedness with other people. I know that if I miss a reading, I'll be behind everyone else and I may miss what God wants to say to us as a group, so that motivates me to stay on top of it and stay "on the same page."

I'll probably be sharing some of the things I've been thinking about here in my blog. I hope it will encourage you, give you pause, and/or awaken that same hunger in you to seek out the One who made you and is so deeply in love with you.