Day 10 of 40 days to Resurrection Day

Today’s suggestion:

Read one or more of the Gospels over the next 40 days.

If you grew up hearing the stories, try to read them with fresh eyes and ears.

from TheFeltSource.com

One of my earliest memories is me sitting in my mother’s lap and her telling me the story of Jesus before bedtime.  I recall being a fearful child, and when she began to recite the old, old story, somehow I was comforted and fell asleep.

Then there was Sunday School class where a kind old lady had flannel graph pictures.  Those colorful figures moved about as she told us children about Jesus’ love and his miraculous deeds.

Somewhere in the midst of all the story telling, I believed and learned to love Jesus.

That was a long, long time ago.

Last year several young women started coming once a month to our house early on a Saturday morning. We eat breakfast, drink coffee and hot cocoa and we study the gospel of Matthew together.  All of us have been Christians for a number of years.  Matthew is familiar to us, but we are trying to read it with a fresh perspective, as if for the first time.

Today was one of those Saturdays.  As we read about Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people with a few fish and loaves of bread and about Jesus walking on the water to meet the fearful disciples, we realized how relevant God’s Word is to us this very day.  In the twenty-first century.

Though the Bible contains ancient words, it is current, living and active.  It still changes people.  If we will just give it a chance, it will become nourishment to our hungry souls.

And we are hungry.  We are trying desperately to satisfy our longings with so much accumulate stuff. We buy more than we need then store the excess at an off-site unit or sell it at a yard sale next summer.

We have food issues and addictive behaviors.  We are busy, busy, busy.  We lust for a different lifestyle, a different house, a different spouse.

We have a lot of this world’s goods, and yet we are still hungry.

Perhaps what we hunger for is something real and lasting, something that is true and honest, something that has stood the test of time and has been found genuine.

My life has been changed because of the gospel message, the one that tells me how much I am loved by God and His Son, Jesus.

It is the story than has never grown old or outdated.  It wears as well today as it did when I was just a little girl.

I’ve seen people live by it.  I’ve watched people die by it.

There is nothing else in this world that is strong and sturdy enough for me to base my very life upon.

The gospel is the good news of God, His love, His provision, His plan.  It is worth looking into.  Again.  And again.