Catching Idle Butterflies

Most popular, least read.

Go to any household in America, and chances are you will find at least one Bible. For decades, people have purchased Bibles over any other book.

Yet it’s the one book that is read the least. Heck, I have eight Bibles in 5 different translations, and if not for Disciple, I would be one of those who don’t read my Bible.

I always wonder why I don’t. Every time I do, no matter what I’m going through, I read exactly what I need to know. If I’m not in any particular need, I still feel a sense of peace and completeness I can’t find in any other circumstance except when I’m around others as we discuss the Bible, or in deep prayer.

About six months ago, I found another avenue to encourage me to read my Bible. I’ve mentioned before Farhana ’s forum "Invalid Item" . She asks intelligent questions about the Bible, even when she runs into a verse or chapter she doesn’t quite understand.

I love to try to answer them, not because I want to appear as some know-it-all, but to answer the same question in my own mind. For instance, we see Jesus as the Prince of Peace, yet in Matthew 10:34 Jesus said: “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”

Farhana asked what this verse meant in her forum. I didn’t know, because the Prince of Peace saying something so incendiary didn’t quite jive to me either. So I opened up my Bible and read the verses before and after starting with 32 and ending with 39: “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

‘I have come to set a man against his father,
         a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
         Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”

Writing this down just now, I noticed the part about setting man against father was quoted. I checked the notes and read Jesus quoted here Micah 7:6. My notes below that said, “Sin had affected the government leaders and society in general. Deceit and dishonesty had ruined the family, the core of society. As a result, the only way left to purify the people was God’s judgement. This would draw the nation back to God and restore them from the inside out.”

Even before reading Micah, I answered the post with: “Many people who give their lives to Christ do so in the midst of those who don't believe, whether it be parents, siblings, friends, or society in general. Looking back, this has been the case. In many societies (I look at China today, as well as Russia up until the late 80s), people have been imprisoned and killed for believing, and expressing that belief as stated in verse 32. Some of these people have been turned in by their family members.

I think what Jesus means here is that choosing to follow him can be rife with danger, and we should not be reticent in following him based on what our friends, family or society would have us do as stated in verse 37. He is what matters, because He created us and therefore determines our eternal fate.”

I may not be correct in my interpretation, but that isn’t the point. Because of her question, I dragged out my Bible, read it, found some answers, and felt God sitting next to me. What could be better than that?

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PS Thank you all for your Christmas wishes! I couldn't have asked for anything more heartwarming. Heck, I'm still grinnin' See?