The Bible: How are you reading?

John chapter 7. It says three times in there that the Pharisees wanted to arrested Jesus because it wasn't His time yet. Three times. In one chapter.

Whenever I'm reading the Bible and something happens to be in there more than once, it tends to be a bit more important. Like it's begging for us to pay attention to this fact because they just keep repeating over and over.

So often when we read the Bible we just glance over the words without actually putting ourselves in the situation that is occurring. For example, in Acts 16 Paul and Silas had just got done getting beaten with rods and clubs for preaching the Gospel in the city. That same night while they were sitting in jail, with scrapes, cuts and bruises, oh yeah, and they were in shackles from head to foot, it says that they were singing hymns and praising God... What!?!?! Can you imagine praising God in a situation like that? Most of us would be mad at God for doing that to us since we were preaching the Gospel but Paul and Silas didn't see it that way.

Don't simply just read the Bible. Experience it. Feel it. Make it a little uncomfortable. But never forget the whole message of the Bible: God created you to worship Him and have a relationship with you. That's why He sent Jesus to die for us. That's the only way that it could have been done.

Never forget that, friends. Be blessed.
-sam