Amazing, Really

For some unknown reason I've been pondering recently the amazing fact that people actually believe the Bible and the story of Christianity. I know I believe what the Bible says. My husband believes it. My children all profess to believe it. My parents and Mel's parents all believe/believed what it says.

I listen to a sermon on the internet and I compare what the preacher has to say with what I've read in the scriptures myself. He appears to believe it and preach it, too.

I looked around at church today and I saw Lydia, 80+ years old, sitting there, listening raptly to the sermon. Lydia believes the Bible. I look at Ira, young and pregnant, sitting with her husband. I know that both of them have professed to believe what the Bible says.

I read in the news about a young man in Pakistan who was tortured and killed because he, too, believed the truth of the Bible. He gave his life for that belief. Wow.

I hold a book in my hands. It is bound with maroon leather. My name is stamped on it in gold letters. The edges are gilded. I open it up and there are words, printed on more than a thousand pages. Some of them are black and some of them are red. Words. Written by more than 40 authors over a 1000 years (I hope I'm remembering those numbers correctly - I'll have to go look them up!).

I open the book and I read the words of God. I am instructed on what to believe and how to live my life. I am instructed and learn who God is and what He does and what He requires of me. I read that His Spirit lives within me and helps me, that I am never alone, that I can talk to Him at any time and in every situation.

I believe this, and much more, is true.
What amazes me is that other people believe it, too.

It seems more likely to me that people would not believe it. That people would read it and put it down and forget it (and many do). That people would hear what the Bible says the truth is and scoff - ha! (and many do). That people would say and think a myriad of things about it and against it that are just not true (and many do).

I look at the evidence myself and see - I would never believe this on my own. I am too much like all those many-who-do people. I would doubt it, scoff at it, find fault with it, disregard it, put it down after reading a few pages and never pick it up again.

Yes, on my own, I would not believe.

But I do believe it! With all that is in me, I believe the Bible is true, the Word of God.

I am so very, very, very thankful that God chose me and enabled me to understand the Truth of the Bible. Oh, yes - I am so very, very glad. And I am so thankful that I am not alone in this belief, that I have many brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers who also believe right along with me.

It is a joyous thing. An amazing reality.

Wow.