Confessions of a Kiddie Pool Floatie Wearer...

So my Sunday school lesson this week came from 1 Samuel 28. If you've never read it, it's the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor and how he talks to Samuel who's already dead. Anyway, lesson aside I was entirely amazed that I had never even heard of this story before. Then all of a sudden I felt my life flash before my eyes. I saw myself as an AWANA kids champ. Growing up in church and a christian school all of my life kind of made me a little ignorant. I also tended to focus my Bible reading on the New Testament. And I found myself asking, "When was the last time I really dug in to the Bible?"

I've been neglecting the most important defense tool I have. God's word is the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6:17) and I hardly know my weapon. You're not going to last very long in your spiritual warfare if you don't know what you're doing. That's how Jesus combated Satan when He was tempted in the desert (Matthew 4) So many times I look up verses in the Bible based on topics. I've had to do this especially with my blog, but there are tons of cool stories in there too. So many words of wisdom are shared through them. I don't think I've ever read anything at all from the book of Zephaniah, Joel, Amos, or even Habakkuk. And what's worse, I've gone backwards. I used to know the books of the Bible in order. And now I find myself using a table of contents occasionally. I have found myself saying I used to know the answer to that question. Or I'll hear something like "Barnabus means son of encouragement" and I remember a time when I remembered stuff like that. The Word has become a stranger instead of my manuel for life.

So my friends, I think it's time for this kiddie pool floatie wearer to get out of the kiddie pool. My Bible reading has been too shallow for too long. A few years ago I started reading the Bible all the way through, but I only made it to 1 Chronicles. That's like taking only one bite of an oreo. Who does that?! And you know what? I think I'm even going to pull the floaties off on this one. I'm heading to the big kids pool and going straight for the deep end. I'm diving in!