As people gathered for worship they noticed that the pastor had a very different look on his face. He seemed more excited than usual. Perhaps more excited than he had been for several years. The mystery of his excitement was contagious and would not be contained for long.
After everyone was together and ready to begin, the pastor made this announcement, 'I was cleaning through the church yesterday, perusing old files and organizing stacks of books. That's when I found it, underneath layers of dust. It's the Bible!'
I don't know about you, but if this story were true and I were sitting in that group, a few questions would pop into my head. When did you lose the Bible? How have you been teaching us for however long it's been lost? And none the least of the questions would be how you lose THE BOOK that is supposedly most sacred, most important and most needed in our lives?
Hard as it may be to believe, this is exactly what happened in 2 Kings 22:8. It seems as King Josiah was interested in seeing the Temple repaired, so he sends word to the priest to tidy up and collect the money together to pay the workers. So Hilkiah the High Priest does this and what do you know? 'Do you recall those words that God spoke and Moses recorded?' 'Yes.' 'Well, we found them. It was weird. Somehow they got hidden behind the Asherah poles and the altar to Baal. It's always the last place you look.'
How dirty is your temple when you lose the sacred books?
My kids often find toys they forgot they had.
My wife has even been known to find a child under a layer of dirt around bath time.
I have been surprised to discover lost treasures in mountains of notes and books.
But imagine the pastor at your church getting up one Sunday and telling you a marvelous story of how he found his Bible, after years of not knowing where it had been. It seems to me that this happens in a hundred different ways in our lives each and every day. Great and necessary habits are cast aside because of many distractions. Prayer time is squeezed out because of phone calls. Taking the time to encourage a person is left undone because of a favorite TV show. And sadly, the reading of God's word does not happen due to forgetfulness or busy schedules.
Who knows how long Temple life had gone on before anyone even noticed that God's Word was missing? And how long do we go in our lives, dependent on our own wisdom, such as it is? It seems to me that we lose more than we realize when we lose time with God. Perhaps it is time for a little cleaning up in your life. If so, I have great news. In the Bible are words of life and hope and salvation. I have found them. You can too.
After everyone was together and ready to begin, the pastor made this announcement, 'I was cleaning through the church yesterday, perusing old files and organizing stacks of books. That's when I found it, underneath layers of dust. It's the Bible!'
I don't know about you, but if this story were true and I were sitting in that group, a few questions would pop into my head. When did you lose the Bible? How have you been teaching us for however long it's been lost? And none the least of the questions would be how you lose THE BOOK that is supposedly most sacred, most important and most needed in our lives?
Hard as it may be to believe, this is exactly what happened in 2 Kings 22:8. It seems as King Josiah was interested in seeing the Temple repaired, so he sends word to the priest to tidy up and collect the money together to pay the workers. So Hilkiah the High Priest does this and what do you know? 'Do you recall those words that God spoke and Moses recorded?' 'Yes.' 'Well, we found them. It was weird. Somehow they got hidden behind the Asherah poles and the altar to Baal. It's always the last place you look.'
How dirty is your temple when you lose the sacred books?
My kids often find toys they forgot they had.
My wife has even been known to find a child under a layer of dirt around bath time.
I have been surprised to discover lost treasures in mountains of notes and books.
But imagine the pastor at your church getting up one Sunday and telling you a marvelous story of how he found his Bible, after years of not knowing where it had been. It seems to me that this happens in a hundred different ways in our lives each and every day. Great and necessary habits are cast aside because of many distractions. Prayer time is squeezed out because of phone calls. Taking the time to encourage a person is left undone because of a favorite TV show. And sadly, the reading of God's word does not happen due to forgetfulness or busy schedules.
Who knows how long Temple life had gone on before anyone even noticed that God's Word was missing? And how long do we go in our lives, dependent on our own wisdom, such as it is? It seems to me that we lose more than we realize when we lose time with God. Perhaps it is time for a little cleaning up in your life. If so, I have great news. In the Bible are words of life and hope and salvation. I have found them. You can too.
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