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For years my brother implored me repeatedly to read the Bible every day. I kept resisting him, mostly because I felt if I wanted to do it, it would have to be on my own terms. There was an innate fear that I didn't want to view my own humanity staring me in the face as I read how I needed to obey the written word. Hellfire and brimstone, I presumed.

But an intriguing thing happened when I began attending Monday night Bible study with the small group who revels in in my pastor's teachings. It opened my eyes to so many things. Lo and behold, The Bible didn't burn my eyes as I read how God wanted to let any believer know that He loves us. At the same time, however, it said how God instructed us that we must all suffer the consequences of our actions. Swift and powerful justice has always been his forte; He has always let people know who was (and still is) in charge.

What surfaced, however, when I continued with book after book, reading with a voracious appetite for knowledge and understanding, was that even what most people consider some characters in the Bible to be as holy as white snow they all proved to be human.

It started with Adam and Eve with their fall from grace in Eden to Cain murdering Abel to Noah lying drunk in his tent to Abraham and Isaac deceiving kings, espousing that their respective wives were their sisters so their lives would be spared to David coveting Bethsheba, another man's wife. Even Moses, one of the most respected men in the Bible, was banished from traveling into the Promised Land because he tapped a rock one too many times.

Even His chosen people, the Israelites, suffered years of torment over the course of several hundred years, because they lost sight of how they escaped their bondage in slavery in Egypt. They just didn't get it. But, even with God's wrath pummeling His own people incessantly, His abounding love eventually restored His people to their rightful place.

It's certainly been a revelation (no pun intended) discovering that even with my own faults and sinful ways that there is hope, that though I fear God, it's a fear of respect and compliance to His Word. By no means have I slain the Evil Dragon we call Satan. Then again, aside from Jesus Christ, who has?

What I find most interesting as I read the Bible every day, though, is how much of a comfort it is to read God's word. I can actually hear Him speaking to me. No matter what goes on around me I know that when I immerse myself reading about the ills of the world it's so inconsequential to the bigger picture. He wants us to keep our eyes on the prize of salvation. In order to do that I've come to realize that by not exposing myself to God's grace every day, I might be missing out on the true blessings in life.

The Bible is there for everyone. Don't be afraid of what you might find out about yourself. Embrace in the knowledge that you not only get to read some fascinating stories about all those characters in the Bible you've known to grow and love, you also can unfold all the layers of interpretive passages that make you think.

Trust me, the peace you derive reading it every day (not when you feel inspired or desperate), will change your life forever. It certainly has changed mine.

No I can get my brother off my back.

Learn more about this author, Thomas Russell.
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