My Birthday..sort of

Thirteen years ago today I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I can honestly say that I am a new creature. (2 Cor 5:17) I traded in my drunkenness for the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18) and my promiscuity for love from One. (John 16:27)

I am God's child. (Gal 4:7) I am a co-heir of Christ. (Romans 8:17) And I have life eternal. (Titus 3:7)

Because of all of that I have hope.

But when I was first introduced to the Bible I wasn't quite so hopeful.

Before I became a Christian, at the ripe old age of 26, I had never personally owned a Bible let alone read one. My parents did, however, own a Bible when I was young. Of course we did. We went to church—at least twice a year!

I distinctly remember that our Family Bible made a wonderful flower press because of its enormous size. And a great centerpiece piece because it sat in the middle of our coffee table. But to open it up and read it was nothing that even crossed my mind.

So when I accepted Christ as my Savior I decided that I needed to start reading the letters that He wrote to me. Some dear, dear friends bought me my first Bible but warned me that it wasn't necessarily a book that was read from cover to cover.

Dully noted.

So the next day I called the associate pastor at my new church. I explained I was a new believer. I owned a Bible but didn't know where to start. He agreed that the Genesis-to-Revelation approach was not the best. He simply stated I should start in The Gospels.

Great. Thanks.

With that I hung up the phone and opened the Holy Writ and flipped through the pages to find The Gospels. And I flipped. And I flipped. And I flipped. Then I cried. I couldn't find it. So I did what an intelligent woman would do, I checked the Table of Contents. It was not there. No where in the list of seemingly 100 names of books was there one titled The Gospels. Oh no! Did I have the incorrect Bible? How could it not be in this one? What was I doing wrong?

I quickly called the pastor back. I calmly stated that my particular Bible did not include a book called The Gospel but if he had a page number I would try to find it.

He chuckled. I did not.

He then proceeded to tell me that the first four books of the New Testament where called The Gospels and that they were written by four different men that knew Jesus. Of course I thought they were called the “Knew Testaments” because the authors knew Christ. But I later learned that was incorrect also.

To clear things up, he suggested I start my new quest in the Book of John. I thought that sounded fine. I remembered seeing a book by that name. We hung up with each other again.

I opened my trusty book. Wasting no time I turned immediately to the Table of Contents. There it was. John. Four times!! Are you kidding? Four Johns? I knew it was a popular name but give me a break! Which one did he mean? Some were numbered. One was not. Was I supposed to start with number one? Or was the one without a number the prequel?

At this point I was weeping. Uncontrollably. How could I be so stupid? I never thought trying to read God's Word would be so difficult. But it was.

After several more conversations with a now weary pastor, I made it to the correct page. I sat down (hours after I had begun) and read my very first chapter. I was confident that now that I had the proper starting point all would be fine.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Here's what I read:

John 1

The Eternal Word

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.


What?! What ever happened to “Once upon a time...” or “It started out to be a cold and rainy day when...”


To say that I was confused is an understatement.


Luckily, I made my way through it. God gave me wonderful teachers and understanding friends to come along side of me. They taught me not only how to read the Bible but answer my endless questions of how and why things happened or didn't happen. He placed me in countless Bible studies which gave me a desire to read and learn more.


Now I am in The Word daily. I can't imagine not. I find that it is the best way to have a conversation with The True and Living God. And I still use that same Bible that was given to me...even if it doesn't have a book called The Gospels.