Today I have two main thoughts rumbling around in my mind, sometimes intersecting, one sometimes allowing the other to occupy center stage.

First of all, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with this blog being all about me. The Christian walk is supposed to be about focusing on others. I comfort myself with the hope and reasoning that through exposing my own struggles, I am encouraging others in the knowledge that they can trust God when they go through hard patches in their lives. That’s really the purpose for this daily blogging exercise.

The other thought is more a rumination than a concrete thought.

This morning I was reading in Isaiah 55. The first verse reads, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!”

In the midst of wondering whether the Lord is communicating directly to me through this scripture today with the invitation to come to the waters (of course I think of the new home close to the lake) and to “buy” (I wonder whether this is confirmation that I am to buy, even though I have no money for a down payment), I hear echoes of my theologian friends who warn about subjectively taking passages out of context to back up our own hopes and desires.

I am aware that many of my friends are more learned than I – but I’m also aware of the many, many times over the years when I’ve simply flipped the Bible open and a passage, perhaps written to the Israelites in a particular time of their history, jumps out at me as being particularly applicable to my own situation. There’s one passage in particular that has come to me over and over and over again in the past 15 years. It is the 54th chapter of Isaiah. It doesn’t matter what Bible I’m using, when I need encouragement that God has His hand on my circumstances and family, I’ll ‘just happen’ to open to that passage. It shocks me – then warms my heart – every time.

I believe that the Bible is far more than just a book. It’s a living entity through which God can speak directly to us. That kind of communication is critical if we’re going to have any real, personal relationship with Jesus.

Must get back to work…