My Love Affair with the Bible

The bible has always been an amazing book to me.  When I was very young I grew up in a church that cherished the bible and its message.  I was taught to memorize its words.  And I did.  Candy, blue ribbons and trophies were the reward.  We studied it, we sang it and we listened every Sunday morning and night to a man as he took several verses line by line and explained their meaning.  Best of all, the words made me feel valued, for in them I was taught that a God beyond my comprehension, more powerful and holy than I could fathom, loved me.  Not only did He love me but He loved everyone, all other kids like me in other towns, states, and all over the world, He even loved big people too.  And these were not just empty words, because He went on to back up this amazing miracle with a demonstration of love.  A death.   His own.  This is really hard to get as a kid, in fact, it’s hard to get as an adult.  But early on, I knew I was loved and that it was by someone more powerful than I could imagine, He was the Being who made butterflies, puppies, and sunsets, so this had to be a good deal for me!
 
And so, my love affair with the Bible has continued; as I got older I had questions and doubts, I had a change of allegiance, friends became the end all be all.  Not all my friends thought God was as great as I did, so there was tension.  I struggled to decide who was right.  Again the bible had stories of people like Samson who became prideful and shifted loyalties, people like David who could do no wrong until one day he did.  And I was comforted to know that I was like them.  And I still am. The bible gave me hope that God would still keep me close to himself even when I had willingly sought other gods and left his instructions for my own ideas about how to live life.  He remained faithful.  He would not disown me.  Wow, how did I get this love?
 
I began to discover the Bible truly had words of life!  And as I went to it again and again, I found it was God-breathed.  He was breathing on me.  His breath comforted me, changed my mind, His truth exposed lies I believed about Him and about myself.  I was slowly being transformed to think differently and therefore I thought differently about myself, about Him and about others; it was weird and awesome at the same time.  I had a desire to love those who were rude to me “to bless those who curse you” (Romans 12:14) -- granted it was a small desire, but a small desire is progress.  It is the transforming word of God in me, and it’s so crazy cool because it is NOT me!  I began to want more and more of Him and less of me; this is a life-long progress but a beautiful one, however difficult it may be.
 
Creating and singing an all scripture songs cd seemed very natural, especially when my husband and I found out our first child was on the way to our lives. We wanted some of her first thoughts to be formed by God’s Word.  It’s a CD called Verse with 12 songs of straight scripture.  I love getting emails from people who say that they found it so easy to memorize God’s word in song.  They will be able to respond to life in a new and different way now too.  His word changes us if we let it into our minds and hearts. 
    
No longer is my goal blue ribbons, or candy: now I hide His word in my heart so that I might not sin against him, my faithful God and Father, the One who was and is and is to come. He really does have the words of life and life more abundant!

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​Jami Smith
Lover of God’s Word, Wife, Mother, Worship Leader, & Song Writer
www.jamismith.com
 
Celebrate the Bible on International Day of the Bible on Monday, November 23, 2015. For more information visit www.internationaldayofthebible.com hosted by www.nationalbible.org.
 
In Oklahoma City, you are invited to the Celebration of the Bible Concert with Jami Smith and many others on Friday evening, November 20th at First Church and the Public Reading of the Bible on Monday, noon, November 23rd at the Oklahoma State Capitol. For more information. 

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