red letters

In my first King James Version bible there were passages that were printed in red ink. These were the words of Jesus as recorded in the books of the New Testament. Just for the fun of it get one of these red letter editions (it doesn’t have to be the King James Version), and read just the parts in red in the first four books of the New Testament. It won’t take you long before you realize that some of the things you thought about what it means to be a follower of Jesus weren’t correct.

A favorite Bible teacher when I was growing up used to say that the biblical word that is translated into English as “obey” is “willingness to listen to.” If I am going to live a grown-up life in God then I will learn to live a life of obedience to God. Just writing that sentence sends shivers up my spine.