God's Pursuit of Me

Yesterday, I finished reading through my Bible for the year. I read through The Message because I wanted a fresh take on Scripture because I tend to get to parts I'm familiar with and just skip across them. There were times when I thought, "Does it really say that?!!?" I'd go to another version and sure enough, it did say that. There were other times when it didn't. But it was a new read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. People often ask me which is the best translation of the Bible to read. I really want to say, "The original language." But that would be smart-aleck and glib. So what I say is, "The one that you'll read." Which is almost as smart-aleck and glib, but it's true.
I've also been teaching a class this year called, "How to Read and Study the Bible." It has brought new insights into my life also. There is a tremendous freedom that I have found this year in reading the Scriptures. I hope it continues to resonate in my life as I continue to read about God's pursuit of us. That's the theme of the entire Bible...God's constant pursuit to have a relationship with us. Someone might say, "It's taken you the entire year of reading through the Bible to come up with that?" The answer to that is "No!" It's taken a lifetime of hardships and beatings (not literal, but spiritual) and mistakes, and I still haven't gotten there yet. But I'm learning. I hope you are, too. Have a great day. JW