I started a program with our youth group this week called "Read The Bible In 90 Days". The intention behind this idea is to give youth an opportunity to really see the scope, sequence, and themes of the Bible. Now, I've read the whole Bible before-- it's hard to avoid when you go to a Christian university. But it's been a very long time, and there's something different and special about reading it for my own pleasure vs. reading it for a school assignment. Yesterday was just the first day of the program, but immediately I was able to see the theme of the Word: "there's always a way out..." When I read the first 15 chapters of Genesis, I saw God seek out his sinful creation in the Garden of Eden right after they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge. He prevented them from living forever in their sinful bodies by banishing them from the Garden before they ate of the Tree of Life. He destroyed the sinful earth, but he preserved it through Noah and his sons. He made a covenant that would save all the people of the earth through the line of Abram and Sarai. Often in the past when I have read the first few chapters of Genesis, I have been overwhelmed by all of the information coming at me (which is to be expected when thousands of years of history is told in less than 12 pages). It was hard to see the trees for the forest. But every time I look at the Word, either in parts or as a whole, I am still able to see a gracious God pursuing sinful people. Not just forgiving, pursuing! What an amazing God I serve. One that not only loves me enough to forgive me when I come to Him, He loves me so much He comes to find me. Luke 15:4-7
What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture to go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!" I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents , than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
