Last night, I attended a family gathering, a 60^th birthday party for someone we love.  My brother, the husband of the birthday girl, organized the party.  “Let’s meet for dinner at the local restaurant.”  There it was—organized.

The conversation easily came even through the long table made it only possible to chat with those sitting beside or across from us.  That’s how I gained the opportunity to talk with my nephews, my older sister, my niece by marriage, and (of course) my husband, who sat to my left.  One particular conversation has been replayed in my mind since last night, the talk I enjoyed with my nephews.  We spoke about their Christmas gifts, about the shopping they hoped to do today with the money they received as gifts.

“I looked online; the shoe store has one remaining pair in size eleven,” my nephew told me when I inquired about the gift of Converse shoes he mentioned.

“Does the Bible count?” my other nephew asked when I inquired about the book he hoped to read over Christmas break. (I know; such an English teacher question.)

“Yes, of course,” I responded.

“Well, then I am reading John right now, and then I hope to read Galatians and then maybe 1^st Timothy.”

‘Such specific books to read,’ I thought as we parted company and traveled home.

‘Will he grow up to pursue a career in ministry,’ I wondered about my middle-school-aged nephew.

• Why do we even read God’s Word?
• Why do we study the pages over and over, throughout the years, making notes, purchasing new translations to study, buying commentaries to read about the Scripture we are reading?
• Why read the Bible?  &
• Why learn about the character of Christ?

Did we catch the truth Paul was preaching?

• If we strive to gain the world and all the treasures found worthy here on earth, they are “counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
• If we strive instead “for the sake of Christ,” then we will have no desire to gather up earthly treasures while we are alive.

Then the apostle Paul continues—

Thus, What Are We Reading?  &   What Are We Studying to better understand God?

The Bible tells us how Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to Himself an earthly body, allowing Himself to be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit to be placed into the womb of a young teenaged girl, the virgin Mary.

The Bible also tells us how Christ, the Son of God, became the son of man, the son of Joseph, the man betrothed to Mary, to be born of the virgin—yet Christ remained without sin—the Son of Jehovah God.

Within the world, the good we do can be seen as bad by the world as Christians are seen as fakes & frauds.  Hypocrisy is a word that hurts, both the Christian and the one who is lost to God because the Christian witness can be lost and the one who does not yet know Jesus as Savior may turn and walk away from belief.  We are never told to do good works so that others will see us ‘doing’ the good deeds.  NO!  We are told that hypocrisy turns away people from God; therefore, we must do good in the world because our Hope in doing so will lead others to see Christ and become saved.