Did you catch that?

One thing that I've come to appreciate more and more lately is a deeper understanding of the Bible as "being alive." The Living Word of God! What strikes me is the way the same passage can be read over and over and over again - and still speak new things!
Not that it's a new concept to me, just that it's been on my mind a lot lately.

(2 off-point rabbit trails here):
Eugene Peterson talks about "Turning Eyes into Ears" in Working the Angles. That's part of it too. I've really been praying lately as I read that God would SPEAK, or maybe, more accurately, that I would LISTEN. That the time I spend reading is not simply reading- but listening. For many great men and women of God, this is a well-known, well-practiced thing.

Another thing is - other "books" (because the bible is a written "book") - even really great, time-tested, world renowned books - don't have this quality (if that's the right word). Maybe you can read and re-read War & Peace, or Les Miserables and see something different in it many times. But it still pales in comparison to the Bible.

OK. No more rabbit trails. Here's what made me want to write this morning:

I am reading John (the gospel of). I've been reading it for a while now. I'll read through each chapter a couple of times as I make my way through it - even re-reading sections and portions several times before moving on to the next chapter. Then, when I get to the end of the book, I go back to the beginning and do it again.

This morning, after reading John 6 last night, I read it again. The first two sections of John 6 are the recording of two different miracles that Jesus performed. (Three different signs, actually; two well known signs, and one that is overlooked all the time.) First, Jesus takes a boy's five loaves and two fish and uses it to feed over 5,000 people. And the next section tells about the disciples being 3 or 4 miles out on the water in a storm when Jesus comes walking ON the water. (The third, less well-known miracle is that once Jesus is on the boat, it says they were immediately to the land where they were going John 6:21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.)


OK - so that's the setting, or background for what caught my attention this morning.

The next section tells of the people WHO HAD EATEN the bread and fish (keep that in mind) - crossing the sea to find Jesus. And once they do, they strike up a conversation. And what do they ask Jesus? -John 6:30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

And as if that question isn't a hard enough slap in the face, they continue... 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

These people who - - - 1 day prior !!!! - - - ate the food that Jesus fed them, have the nerve to ask him for a sign to prove himself. Not only that, but they talk about their fathers EATING a MIRACULOUS food!!!! NOT only that either!!! - - they then quote scripture to JESUS!!!



I read all of this today and thought to myself, "Wow! ...those people"

Then I thought about how, if I'm honest, I would have been one of those people. I think this because I AM one of those people.

How many times have I seen - beyond any doubt - Jesus work a miracle? How many times in my own life have I tasted the goodness of Jesus' miracles? And how many times do I still ask him for some sort of sign before I'll trust him to be who he says he is?


This got kind of long, and I didn't mean for it to. I was just convicted by something "new" that God spoke to me this morning while reading a passage that I've read many times before.

Isn't that amazing? God is good!

That is all.