Read as Though You Believe

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

“She put the Bible there on my nightstand…right next to my ashtray.”

Bibles and ashtrays.  I knew this story was going to be good!

I was talking with Mike Sharman and I asked him the simple question, “How did you come to faith in Christ?”

It didn’t come until he was deep into life, married, making money and advancing professionally.

His wife had become a Christian, and he had attended a Bible study with her, but spent most of the time finding things to argue about, so he quit going.

But his wife had taken that one simple step, putting a Bible on his nightstand, and there it sat, like an ancient treasure chest just waiting to be opened.

Then came the night he was lying in bed, his wife fast asleep, and he heard a voice, a resonating voice.  It simply said, “I exist.”  He wasn’t sure what he’d heard, or even if he was dreaming, but he heard it a second time, then a third time, and he quickly came to the decision that it was God.

Well.  Now what?  Mike was open at this point, and ready for what might come next.

What came next was the voice saying, “Pick up that book,” and he knew what “book” was being referred to:  the Bible on his nightstand.

The voice said, “Pick up that book.  Begin at page one.  Read as though you believe.”

Well Mike had picked up “that book” before, but here was the key, the instruction to “read as though you believe.”

In other words, God was saying, “Set aside your bias.  Put away any anti-Bible or anti-Christian bigotry you may have and simply read the Bible ‘as though you believe,’ and see what happens.”

And he did.

And the rest is history.

And Mike Sharman has been following Jesus and making a difference in the world and in the Kingdom of God for many years now.

So what about you?  Perhaps this is God’s word to you today.

Pick up that book.  Begin at page one.  Read as though you believe.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.