Revelation

The office I most prefer holding in my organization is recording secretary. Recording secretary has just enough power and responsibility for my liking. I do not have to preside unless both the senior officers are absent. However, that role requires me to be “in-the-know” on almost every facet of the organization. I like knowing what is happening because I like having the full picture.

My desire to see the full picture is why I begin my devotions with Jeremiah 33:3 and Psalm 119:18. The former is God telling me that I can ask and He will enlighten. The latter is my asking for enlightenment. These two Scriptures ask God to put me in-the-know about His Word. The anticipation of God telling me “great and unsearchable things” is a motivation to study.

I recently read a devotion whose Scriptural reference was 1 John 2:28-3:10. As I read that passage, an AHA happened on two fronts. First, there are 66 books in the Bible containing 1,189 chapters. But as I read this Scripture, I realized the whole message of the Bible is a simple one of cyclical love: GOD loves me which empowers me to love Him in return and to love my neighbor. All the “thee” and “thou,” the “wherefore” and “whosoever,” the “hearken” and “hath” boil down to that simple message: love God and love each other. I realize that every parable, story, command, prophecy, allegory, retribution, and blessing in the Old and New Testaments were written to lead me to those two commandments: love God and love each other.

My second AHA is that my first AHA resulted from my quest for a deeper understanding of God’s Word. I enrolled in a graduate certificate program for Biblical Studies because I wanted the big picture of God’s Word. As I study and process my assignments, I am seeing wonderful things in God’s law. God is telling and showing me great things that I did not know. Completing an assignment on LOVE opened my eyes to the essence of the Bible—my AHA #1. I also realized—and this may be the true AHA—that God is answering my devotional prayer.

The revelation is not that I am just now learning these commandments. I had an awakening that the difficult books in the Bible (e.g. Job or Revelation), the familiar passages (e.g. The Beatitudes or 23^rd Psalm), the interesting stories (e.g. Jonah or the Good Samaritan), and all other portions of the Bible lead to that one basic understanding: Love God, love others. As I continue reading and studying, I have a new framework for how I relate to God’s Word. It might make reading the Bible less enigmatic.

Reflect: What passage of the Bible do you find difficult? Try rereading it with the Golden Rule—“Love your neighbor as yourself.”—as your framework.