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A few weeks back I bought a small, two tone leather covered NIV Bible. I bought it after I read the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. The reason I bought the Bible was that even though I have a couple Bibles already at home they are rather heavy and a bit bulky to take back and forth to work in my blue, canvas bag that I carry.

I decided that one of my fifteen minute breaks a day would be a good time to get into the Word and read. I use no pens, or pencils, or highlighters. I just read for fifteen minutes. I read Romans over the course of a couple days. I found myself rereading whole chapters two or three times, it sounds silly to say, but there really is a lot in Romans. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to wrap my brain around it all.

Last night I started reading my favorite gospel: Luke. I like Luke the best because it is a history, not a first person account. That comes in Acts. As I read Luke I made a connection that I've never really thought about. I always assumed that it was just Jesus and his apostles. I never quite relized that there may have been many more people with him. There may have been quite a few, how many? I don't know, but there must of been enough that Jesus realized that he was going to have have a "core group" to get things done. (That sounded horrible the way that was written... sorry).

I have had other ah-ha moments. A big one for me was when I decided that Jesus must of really looked like an average guy middle eastern guy. He was probably a short, dusky skinned guy (why else would the Jewish leaders need someone to betray him?) We've grown up with this image of Christ as a blonde, blue eyed, western European visaged guy, but I have sneaking suspicion that he was just your average, ordinary Hebraic fellow. I'd like to think he was a bit taller then everyone else, though.

To some people, saying that Christ was not caucasian is something akin to blasphemy. I'm not trying to do that, matter of fact, if it helps someone believe in Christ to think he was a white guy, so be it. The image I have is of a olive skinned middle eastern man who happened to have a rag tag group following him.

The more I read of the scriptures the more I need to know. I heard a phrase one time that went something like this: "the scriptures are shallow enough for a baby not to drown, but they are also deep enough for a the most learned man to never reach the bottom." That is a paraphrase, but the more I read the more I realize I don't know anything. I have barely scratched the surface and I think that's a good thing. There will always be more I can learn and more ways I can grow.