Dig for the truth!!

I made an amazing discovery today that I can't wait to share with you, but before I do I need to lay some groundwork for you first.

Last May I felt God laying it on my heart about sharing His Word with my girls. I had always tried to share Scripture with them and apply it to their lives, but I felt like this nudging was more than that. So Clint and I decided to start reading the Bible with them every night, starting at Genesis. Of course, right after we started we left on holiday back to the States and everything got thrown off course. So while I was home I purchased a Bible study for my girls to do each day when we got back to China. It's a Precept study for kids entitled "Discover 4 Yourself". There are several topics in this series, but I decided to start at the beginning with Genesis. So every night for the past 3 weeks we have sat down and started digging out the truth of God's Word found in Genesis 1 & 2. At first my girls weren't thrilled about the work, but as we have continued to make amazing discoveries in Scripture they are beginning to see the value of studying the Word.

Okay, so now to the point of this blog post....tonight as Kayley and I were studying we were asked to think about how old the Earth really is. We were told to use Scripture to find the answer, since God's Word is all we need for knowing about the world in which we live. As Kayley and I started searching out the numbers and adding them up, I realized that the numbers were too small compared to what science has always told me about the age of the Earth. Yet based on the timeline we were given and the information provided to us in Scripture, we were faced with the amazing discovery that the Earth is not billions or millions years old, but according to Scripture it is only thousands of years old!! I was completely blown away! My mind is still trying to figure it all out, but I know that Scripture doesn't lie so somehow God is going to have to help my feeble mind make sense of it all -- or then again maybe He doesn't!!

All of this got me thinking about a few other discrepancies I had always been told or taught in the past. For example, I was always told that Noah stayed in the Ark 40 days and 40 nights; but that is only how long it rained. When you add up the numbers listed in Genesis 7 and 8, he actually stayed on the ark 377 days! The more I studied Genesis 7 I also learned that God did not instruct Noah to take two of every kind of animal into the ark but rather he told Noah, "take seven of every kind of clean animal..and two of every kind of unclean animal....and seven of every kind of bird" (Genesis 7: 2-3). Isn't that amazing???

Now I know some of you may have already known those things but I was really surprised when I unearthed them in Scripture. It made me realize that we cannot just read our Bibles or depend on others to tell us what Scripture says....we must dig for the truth ourselves! Not only have I fed on the words of others but I've also passed on my lack of true understanding on to others as well (namely my children and possibly yours if I had them in Children's Church at some point).

Awhile back I wrote a similar post to this one, entitled "Robbed". Basically it's the same type of post as this one but about the book of Esther instead of the book of Genesis. I guess God is still trying to get it through my thick head that I cannot be content just reading, skimming, or listening to great teachers talk about the Bible. I need to dig for the truth myself. I know that exciting discoveries, revelations, and understanding await me when I do.

"Though it cost you all you have, get understanding....buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline, and understanding." - Proverbs 4:7; 23:23

I'm blown away by You Lord and by Your Word. I know that You satisfy the hungry. May I hunger and crave Your Word knowing I will always leave Your table full.