I have been an avid reader since childhood. There were always at least four books on my library card (that was the maximum), and if I didn't have at least two with me on a weekend away, I'd get the jitters, because let's just say I finished one and there was none to follow?!
As you do, I worked through the genres and went through phases of favourites being replaced with others. In the end it was a good whodunnit page turner that I would go back to time and time again.
And what trouble it would get me into… for there would be school the next day!
But just one more page,
one chapter,
which then became two, or three, four, five….
suddenly it's 2am and then it's not school, but an 8 – 5 working day!
Only readers will understand.
The problem with a well-known, well-leafed-through book such as the Bible, is that its page-turning quality may fade over time.
The thing is - we know who wins.
Yet…
So often, just when we least expect it, the Lord rewards us with an unexpected moment, a previously misread line, a new insight into an all too familiar passage and voila! Brand new message.
What other book can do that?
This morning it happened again.
We had a visiting minister from Ukraine in the church. They have had to flee twice because of the war, the first time in 2014, and now they have been in England for a year already.
He brought this morning's message from Acts 8, and we ended up reading the chapter together.
The first line, verse 1 in my Contemporary English Version, at the very top left, page 152 in the New Testament, read: "Saul approved the stoning of Stephen."
We finished reading, and while I am supposed to give my attention to the preaching, my eyes wander further, and I read the heading of Acts 9: "Saul becomes a follower of the Lord Jesus."
It is in the middle of page 153, just to the right of page 152.
Just 40 verses later.
Just a page and a half.
Saul becomes Paul and his whole life changes.
There is no end to the Lord's Good Plan for this earth, and you are part of it.
Sometimes you can't see the end from the beginning because it sits on the back of the page your story is on right now.
The fact remains - it's only one page turn away.
In the parting words of our minister's wife this morning:
"Lord, we simply cannot mess this up for you."
Please turn over.
Your inspiration for today: On time God
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