Aim High

Before I set off I should be clear in my aims. Why am I doing this? Well, it's not simply because it's there, although that phrase is probably more appropriate for reading the bible than climbing a big pile of dirt and rock. It's not for the challenge, though I'm sure it will prove to be challenging.

Scientists recently discovered signs of ancient civilisations in a region straddling the border of Brazil and Bolivia. As the rain forest was cut down vast ditches and enclosures  became visible from the air. You could walk over these bumps and dips on the ground without realising their significance but from the air their large scale regularity becomes apparent and testify to the existence of a previously unknown civilisation in the Amazon basin. As I climb, verse by verse, book by book, I want to see Jesus more clearly. More of his magnificence and his majesty.

More and more God has impressed upon me the significance of taking in the whole of his word. I have experienced something of an epiphany recently when I realised that taken as a whole the bible leads me to the incontestable conclusion that, as a church, we will see many more people healed.

So my aim is to get an overview of the whole vista of God's word as it points to Jesus. It's something that Systematic theology attempts to do by grouping and analysing and summarising what the bible says about different subjects but there is no substitution for reading the whole story from cover to cover. Taking on not just the specific verses about healing or heaven or marriage or manna but their context in the whole breadth of God's word.

Oh, and how long will it take? Well it would be nice to think I could do it in a year but given that I'm already a few days into January, and that to do that I'd have to take it in chunks of several chapter at a time I don't think I'll commit myself. I remember setting out on a holiday on the Broads at top speed (around 7mph) and suddenly realising that it was more about the journey than the destination. After that I slowed down, stopped eroding the bank with my wash, and enjoyed the country side around me. I'm going to take a leisurely pace through the bible and enjoy the sights.     

So here I am. Base camp. I need to get a good night's rest and then tomorrow I will start.  I think. Actually I'm off to pray in the prayer room now at our church where we are doing a 24/7 prayer week.