Faithful Reader

I suppose a lot of you have been wondering where I have been. I know most of you have not been receiving my daily quiet times lately. There is a reason for that—I have not been having any. I have been extremely frustrated with ‘things’, that I have let God slip from first place in my life. Right now I am flying at 32000 feet (in an airplane, not on drugs) and hope and pray that God doesn’t take this opportunity to punish me for my lack of effort in continuing a close relationship with Him.

I have to wonder, however, where have you been, as well, faithful reader? I borrow that term, faithful reader, from one of my favorite fiction authors, Stephen King. He usually refers to me and the hundreds of thousands of other fans of his books as faithful readers in his introductions. I enjoy being considered that, of him, as it makes me feel important somehow in his writing career. I know that it is ridiculous of me to think that way, but when he writes it, and I have bought his book (usually Socorro buys them for me), I think he really is talking directly to me.

When I summarize my quiet times and distribute them to you, I am in fact, talking directly to you. Each and every one of you. You are MY faithful readers (whether you read the whole QT or not (I know one person who says he only skims the long ones!). By me sharing my Quiet Time studies, I feel like I am following in the footsteps of that great author (no, not Stephen King), the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote a goodly portion of the New Testament and I became a faithful reader of his writings. I long for him to write another book. I only wish he could; there is so much more I want to learn from him. But, that not being possible, I have to be satisfied with re-reading what he DID write, over and over. As a faithful reader of Paul, I hope to learn more and more about our God. I KNOW that Paul is speaking directly to me. Maybe that was not his intention, but that is the way it is.

I have been unfaithful. I have not been reading Paul’s letters like I should be. I have let the discouragements of ‘things’ get in my way. I am willing to bet that Paul knows this, and feels betrayed by one of his readers. I can hardly call myself faithful.

Paul writes directly to the Saints in Ephesus (see Ephesians 1:1), yet I feel he is writing directly to me as well. And to all the Saints every where and every time. I want to apologize to Paul as of now, and am repenting of my unfaithfulness. I plan on reading his wondrous letters over and over again. And when I do so, I plan to share with each and everyone of you, some things that I may glean from his teachings.

You can become a faithful reader of my lessons, or not. That is all up to you. You can delete my emails when they arrive in your mailbox. Or, you can read them. You can also become a more faithful reader of Paul, as well as the other authors of our Bible. If you are one already, I applaud you with all my heart. Many of you to whom I am sending this email, ARE, so I don’t mean to demean you in any way. I hope you can keep it up better than I did.

A faithful reader is just that. Faithful. Paul referred to Tychicus as a faithful servant, the brothers in Colosse as holy and faithful, to Epaphros as a faithful minister, to Silas and Onesimus as faithful brothers, and to God Himself as THE one who is faithful.

I plead with all of you who have been like me, unfaithful to our Bible readings, to join me in our own (your) personal crusade to ‘throw off all that hinders’ and become faithful Bible readers once again. In addition to apologizing to Paul, I apologize to God and to YOU for my lapse in faithfulness. Please accept my apologies---I know God has (the plane has landed safely!