I have lots of hobbies – hanging out with my gorgeous wife, playing basketball (the old guys are still undefeated on Wednesday nights!), cycling, watching movies, reading, etc.  But if I had one hobby that I had to claim as my favorite it would be studying my Bible.  It’s not just a duty anymore, it’s fun, so fun that I would claim it as a hobby.

If you think that’s how I’ve always been, you’re dead wrong (read my last blog). I hated everything about the Bible other than the cool stories inside.  If it was anymore than that I wasn’t having it.  So, before you jump to conclusions and say that you can never be the way I am now, just hang on and read how it all happened.

I am going to with you the three biggest contributors to my deepest passion. However, the three that will be listed are all dependent upon the biggest factor of all: The Holy Spirit.  Yeah yeah, I am going to get all spiritual on you for just a second.  Everything else that encouraged it along the way was just a secondary piece of the puzzle.  The Spirit moved upon this old calloused heart and the product was a love, reverence, and zeal for the Scriptures He inspired. Without Him it would have never happened.  He moved upon holy men as they wrote the Bible (II Peter 1:21) and He moved upon me to read it. No Holy Spirit So, now that that’s said, let me tell you the three key factors that helped me learn to love the Bible.

Reason #1- Lon Solomon (A.K.A. A Good Teacher)

If i had the opportunity to sit down and have lunch with either Michael Jordan or Lon Solomon, despite owning every single one of MJ's shoes, I would still pick Lon Solomon. Who is Lon Solomon you ask? Lon is th epastor at McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia. Every Sunday nearly 15,000 people go to hear him speak, but he's not the fluffy, cotton candy kind of preacher that might attract such a big crowd. Lon brings it!

I first discovered him when I was fresh out of Bible College.  I thought I knew it all until my man gangster-slapped me, Bible style!  To this day, there is not a single person on the planet who has taught me more about the Bible than Lon Solomon.   He has no idea, but he was the one who inspired me to be a pastor, to study the Bible at the level I do, and to preach messages that go ultra deep while still being interesting. When I first heard him, I finally heard a pastor who made the Bible real and I wanted to be just like him…still do!

Reason #2 – Greek and Hebrew (a.k.a. A Proper Perspective)

I have trust issues – I hardly trust anyone or anything without first checking it out myself.  Sometimes that’s good and sometimes it works against me.  Whatever the case, I brought my lack of trust even to the Bible, especially the English versions.  As I was a student I wondered why there were so many translations and why some things appeared differently in my Bible as compared to my friends’ Bibles.  Then, after realizing how stupid I was, I discovered that the Bible wasn’t written in English, but rather in Hebrew, Greek, and a little bit of Aramaic.   At that point I wanted to study these languages to see if what my English Bible said really corresponded to what the BIBLE actually said.

After learning the alphabets and the grammars, I finally got a crack at opening up the texts and seeing what they said in the original languages; and from that point on I was hooked!  Let me just tell you this: if you want to see the Bible come alive more than it ever has, learn the Biblical languages!!

It’s for that reason that I am going to be offering a Biblical Hebrew class for any student who graduates from 301.  This class will be offered in the summer of ’11 and will hopefully have the same effect on any who takes it as it did on me.

Reason #3 – Prophecy (a.k.a. A Powerful Persuader)

The Bible tops every other religious book for many reasons (one of which is that our book alone is “God-breathed” and theirs’ isn’t), but without a doubt the most compelling reason our book trumps all others is because of prophecy.   God says this of Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10:

For I am God, and there is no other;
      I am God, and there is none like Me,

Declaring the end from the beginning,
      And from ancient times things that are not yet done

God says that what separates Himself from all other imposters is that He alone knows the future.  It would therefore make sense that His book, YHWH’s book, would contain prophecy…and the Bible does – nearly 1/3 of it is filled with predictions about the future.

 I remember when I first discovered some of the pinpoint accurate prophecies in the Bible, most especially Daniel 9.  I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing.  I thought, these must have been written after the fact because there’s no way something could be that accurate.  I’ve read Nostradamus’ prophecies and they were always sooooo lame and general.  But these prophecies (Daniel 9, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Genesis 49, Zechariah 12, Micah 5, etc.) were so precise that I couldn’t deny it anymore.  I wouldn’t say that I became a prophecy junkie after that day, but I did familiarize myself with them and loved the Bible all the more.

 
The Bottom Line

If you are a believer there’s no way the Spirit is not prodding you to get into the Word.  I don’t know what He’ll use along the way to get you into it, but He’s going to do it.  My only regret through this process was that I didn’t hear of Lon earlier, didn’t learn Greek and Hebrew until I was in college, and didn’t know of one prophecy until I was 24!  You’re hopefully going to fall in love with the Bible and take it from me, you’re going to want to do it sooner than later.

I’m just being Frank with you…

Pastor Frank