It is faithless, cowardly, common reading that comes to Scripture ready for nothing.

I've often read it in such a manner, but mercy has met me there anyway. Thanks be to God.

I reflect back on my first youthful encounters with Scripture---I had no clue what this book was or from Whom it was. I thought I was reading Shakespeare or a spell book.

I was not ready for the "magic" that was present in its pages. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation--certainly!--and when the gospel was proclaimed to me from the text of Scripture, I was placed in the field of God's power for salvation.

That power unto salvation -- it came over me, it overcame me.

Not like lightning, but like dawn.

I was en-light-ened, and continue to be, more and more unto the perfect day.

and YET--still I (and maybe you) do often hear Scripture with a lazy hope that I could just roll through it like a car wash and receive strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow---no trouble, no transformation.

If you want to remain lord over your life, supreme judge of truth and justice, final arbiter of reality and morality---

If you want to remain unchallenged and unchanged, the Bible is not the book for you.

I'm teaching Rom 9-11 this week to college students and I want them to know that, even beyond the role of Israel in salvation history, the bigger lesson is here: Take this book seriously enough to get offended, and take this God seriously enough to listen and learn. Be teachable.

To light a candle, you often first have to cut the wick.