Courting The Bereans - He Said
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." - Acts 17:11 Okay, the Buffett thing isn't so much romantic as it is just sad.
The point is that I long for love and memorialize the moments when I find it.
The converts in Berea knew a few things about romance, too. For them, the message from Paul was an invitation to love, a call to courtship. When the apostle told them of God’s love, of how God desired for them to be made whole, they eagerly examined the Scripture, parsing Paul’s words to see if what the apostle said was true.
It was, and still is.
God is love. We only need to hear the laugh of a toddler, smell the biscuits of grandma, see the limbs bending in the pines. Small trinkets left for us by a God who loves us so much, He exchanged the life of His son that we might rest in His arms. My desire to return to Eden, to find Eve and the perfection of paradise is not the aimless wanderings of a hopeless romantic. It is the heart of a man hungry for the one who made me in His image.
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Be a Berean! -- She Said
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see what Paul said was true. – Acts: 17:11
When you raise a household of boys certain things are inevitable -- bloody noses,
belching contests, and comic books. As a teen my husband loved comics. There are a number of plastic storage bins in the basement filled with original Spiderman and Fantastic 4 comics. He, like most kids in our youth, collected pop bottles and redeemed them for pennies to buy comics.
As our kids grew into adolescents, Tim involved them in his comic book interests. Each week he’d load the boys into the car and drive to the comic book store. They would burst through the door after Wayne, the owner, asking what books were in their tubs for the week. Wayne knew when the sideline books would hit, and he tossed a copy in their tubs, keeping them on top of all the characters. The kids couldn’t wait to get their new editions. They could bolt upright in their beds from a dead sleep and tell you the details of Spiderman because they were excited.
I offered some information on the scriptures to a group of folks who’d obviously missed their afternoon naps. They left the information in their seats as they trudged off to catch a few zzzz’s. Can we talk, and talk honestly –no lies (can’t do that according to the ninth commandment). I was saddened no one was eager to study the word. How can we be the Christians God asks us to be if we are not eager and excited to know His word? How easily can we be misled without knowledge?
The Bereans were “off the beaten path” from most folks and honestly –here it is again -- few expected them to latch on the Word with zest, but when they received it they were thrilled. More so, they studied it daily finding assurance in what Paul was teaching them was tried and true. We take for granted when a scripture is offered to us, that it is given in the right context. If we never study, we can never know if Satan has turned the word around to suit his agenda. You can justify most anything scripturally when you take it out of context –even sin. Loving God with an eagerness and a desire to know Him should come as easily as my boys’ excitement over comic books. That “want” is what will ground us in very basis of God.
Love Him with eagerness. Study His word with fervor. Know Him fully. Share Him with excitement to others. Be a Berean!
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