(Stay tuned for Ch. 1, which will be released section by section each day of RELEASE WEEK--June 3rd-June 7th, but here is a little sneak peak from Ch. 10 until then...)
MAKE THE BIBLE COME ALIVE
I was nine years old. My younger brothers and I crowded around the living room entertainment center, curled up on the fuzzy, matted carpet. A husky voice growled from the dual cassette stereo speakers. “And the conspirators rejoiced….” Sounds of murmuring and mischievous revelry whet our anticipation.
“Daniel!” The voiced rumbled. “Did your God save you?”
Burl Ives thundered right out of those speakers and into our hearts.
We were mesmerized. Daniel and the lion’s den. David and Goliath. Jonah. Stories larger than a child’s world came to life and lit up our imaginations. We fought against the conspirators with Daniel. We faced the giant with David. We gulped for breath on the beach with Jonah. And each story sank into our hearts, making an indelible impression there.
Years later, I went back and searched for those tales. The complete sets could not be found. Burl Ives and his legendary Bible story tapes had slipped into the silent past, quietly forgotten amongst decades of unraveled cassettes and discontinued books. But the stories he told there have not been forgotten.
When my three brothers and I get together, we still quote those lines between laughs. The stories still echo in our hearts. That’s the power of bringing the Bible to life. They are God’s stories, the most perfectly crafted plotlines, from the deception of a snake in the garden to the storming of the world by a man on a white horse, charging toward a war he’s already won.
Gideon and glass jars. God cuts an army to a handful. Joshua and Jericho. The walls come crashing down. A field of dry bones comes to life. A woman’s beauty captures a king and frees a kingdom. A baby is born in straw and hay who angels tell will save the world.
That’s the Bible. It’s true. And it will change our lives.
In the wide-eyed, wild imaginations of our children, it will form theirs.
Build a life, shape a destiny. Shape a child and change the world.
While our worlds are still small and filled with wonder, the Lord is a hero every child wants to follow. Impress the beauty of the Word upon a child’s heart in all its glory during those early years, and that child will honor God long after her jeans have lengthened or he’s left home to conquer the world.
Even an adult’s world can be transformed by them. Apply a little perspective to the Word and romance and passion leap off the pages. It’s filled with intrigue, adventure, heartbreak, and daring rescue. The bad guys couldn’t be more devious nor the good guys more heroic. And real.
Kind of makes you want to be like them.
Amidst the routine of life is the mission to make this fantastical world our own. That is transforming one’s mind and renewing one’s life.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).
Do not languish anymore with the perspective of darkened minds, but be inspired by God’s dreams as he unveils passion before your eyes.
Besides restoring truth, God’s Word restores the hope that moves the human heart.
It is a grain of sand on a beach that becomes a star in the sky and lights up the destiny of a nation in a man’s eyes. It is a shiny glint along the shore of every thought God has towards you.
Read it often. Read it with your children.
Take a grain of sand and place it in a jar alongside a child’s bed and it will set the ocean in his heart. Teach the child her destiny and it will light the nightscape in her eyes.
Plant the Word of God in a child’s heart, and you will see it grow into a tree that provides leaves for the healing of the nations and his own heart, as well.
The seed can begin as early as there is a spark in a child’s eyes. Her first words can be from her first Bible. His first dreams can be of conquering giants. And you will birth a man or woman who becomes an oak of righteousness, whose roots break through walls and in whose branches the birds of the air will come and find rest.
(to be continued... -leave a comment and let me know you stopped by!)
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