I knew the answer!

I've been a Christian pretty much my whole life and grew up in the church. However, the churches I mainly grew up in focused much more on you "felt" about things and less about learning what's actually in the Bible. It was more emotional than intellectual. Of course, you need both. I knew kids who grew up with the other imbalance, book-knowledge only with no emotional appreciation of their savior, and had problems of their own. For me, the end result was that I know very little about what the Bible actually says about anything. It's sad really, considering how many years I spent in sunday school. I frequently find myself in the middle of a discussion or debate about something in the Bible and I just feel stupid. My friends don't assume they would need to explain Bible things to me, since I have been in church forever, which means that I have to humble myself and ask them what they are talking about.

About a year ago I joined a Bible study that I have been loving, although it is a lot of work. It's a Bible study where you actually study the Bible, not just a lot of women socializing and calling it a Bible study. I love re-learning the stories, but also learning why things happened they way they did, what that means, and how to apply it to my life. I love it!

Yesterday I was having a Bible discussion with a couple co-workers of mine, who are both extremely more knowledgeable than me when it comes to the Bible. They were discussing a few things about how God created animals. The question moved into when man started eating meat - one friend thought it was from the get-go, and the other thought it was after the fall. I, very confidently, knew that God added animals to the menu after the flood. They didn't have much confidence in my answer. Since my bible study takes so much time, I keep it with me everywhere I go, just in case I have a few minutes to work on it...which means I had my Bible with me (we were in the car). I pulled out my Bible and was able to look up the couple verses for them were God first gave plants for man to eat, and then added animals to the list after the flood.

I think that was the first time in my life that I confidently knew what the answer was, and knew it well enough to prove the answer in scripture. Sometimes I'm like...I think I've heard/read this in there somewhere, but I have no idea where. This time, I actually knew the answer and I could find it. It made my day.

Not only am I a Christian, but am also a student of the Bible. It's a pretty good book - highly recommended.