And what has God freely given us? Open secrets about his way for us to live—loving, forgiving, exercising self-control, showing patience, finding joy even in hardship.
What has God freely given us? Open secrets about God and his agenda for time and forever. God loves us; Christ died for us; the Holy Spirit helps us; Satan hinders; hell is real, but so is heaven.
And yet, in some mysterious way, as open as God has made his secrets, people who do not know God do not understand his ideas either. The secrets seem stupid; too silly to be wise.
“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. … For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” —1 Corinthians 2:14-16
I guess one day it just clicked. I do not recall when it happened. But I turned a corner in my mind. The Book that had seemed so special because of its protective box and leatherette binding took on a deeper meaning. It had once captivated me precisely because it seemed so forbidding, unapproachable.
The Holy Bible
CONTAINING THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS TRANSLATED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL TONGUES AND WITH THE FORMER TRANSLATIONS DILIGENTLY COMPARED AND REVISED. THE AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, 1611, RED LETTER EDITION.
Then something clicked.
Was it that night in the Sierra? Was it some afternoon when curiosity prompted me to crack the Book open? At some point I realized I was no longer reading words from people about God. I was reading God’s Word. His Word to me.
And a responsibility settled over me with astonishing weight: I have only one life to master this Book.
I may have forever to get to know God.
But I need his open secrets now.
Read more stories related to the Bible at outreachmagazine.com/Bible.
James 1:17
Romans 5:8
Hebrews 4:12
James 1:23–25
James 1:18
1 Peter 1:23
Ephesians 5:25–27
Psalm 119:105
1 Peter 2:2
1 Corinthians 3:1–2
2 Peter 1:20–21
2 Peter 3:15–16
2 Timothy 3:16–17
Proverbs 14:12
Jeremiah 17:9
Jeremiah 17:10
1 Corinthians 2:9–12
1 Corinthians 2:14–16
