Robbed

I was robbed at church. I know that may come as a shock to some of you and you may be thinking, who would do such a thing? I wasn't literally robbed, as in someone stealing my purse. My robbing was a different kind, and completely my fault.

Before I get to my robbery story, let me fill you in on where I'm coming from. A few weeks ago I received a wonderful book from a dear friend entitled Lost Women of the Bible. This WONDERFUL book highlights different women from the Bible and shows how they got lost in their famous stories. As I was reading the chapter on Esther, I began to realize that I wasn't as familiar with this passage as I thought I was. The author was describing things I had never heard of and I was floored to say the least! The entire time I was reading I kept thinking to myself, "I don't remember that part." Completely frustrated, I put the book down and began to recall what I had learned about Esther in the past. From my review, I realized that most of my encounter with the book of Esther was what I learned in Sunday School, what I taught in Sunday School, what I had heard preached in church, or what I quickly skimmed during my Bible reading time. Most of those things were bits and pieces of the entire story and there were many things that were left out of my "learning". That's when I determined I had been robbed at church.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not blaming the church. For the most part the church did it's job teaching me about the heroic Esther (although some of it they "censored", which is understandable). However, I take full blame for my lack of knowledge of the complete story. I was the one who was content to let others do the learning for me. I was the one who failed to open my Bible and read it fully for myself. I was the one who listened and believed what was taught to me without studying it on my own. I was robbed at church all right and I am the thief.

Please understand my heart in all this. From this experience I have learned that if I want to know the Word of God as I need to, it is my responsibility alone to learn it. None of us should solely rely on the teaching of other people, no matter how good the teaching may be. God calls each one of us to know and obey His Word. Don't rob yourself of one of the greatest gifts God has given to His beloved children -- the Bible. Don't be content to sit and eat what others have chewed on themselves. Open up the Word, read and feed on it for yourselves! You will never go hungry and you will always be satisfied. Please, don't be another robbery victim statistic....