A Serious Search
Stan Telchin was a successful, settled Jewish man in his 50s, not really religious but proud to be a Jew. One day his daughter who was off at university phoned him and dropped a bombshell: she had become a believer in Jesus Christ.
Well, this just about destroyed the Telchin family, as Stan and his wife and other daughter recoiled at this news and struggled to process Judy’s conversion. The story is told in Stan’s great little book Betrayed! which I found here in our church library and read a week or two ago. It’s a great read, and it really got me thinking about things – which I am going to share with you this week.
Passionate Bible Study
Stan’s daughter Judy eventually came home to visit her family, and they all sensed that she was different somehow, but they couldn’t quite say how. She was passionate about this Jesus who her family wanted nothing to do with, and eventually Stan said to her “But Judy, you’re Jewish… Jews just don’t believe in Jesus. How can you be Jewish and believe in Jesus, it’s impossible!” Judy told him that he was wrong about that, and said to him “Look, Dad, you have just got to find out more about this. You don’t have to believe what I believe or believe me, but you’re an intelligent man. Read the Bible for yourself and find out whether it’s true or not… If He isn’t the Messiah, you’ll know it. But read the Bible for yourself and come to your own conclusions.”
Stan thought this was a great idea. He couldn’t wait to start reading the Bible to prove her wrong about all of this! And so he began a ferocious study of the Bible to show his daughter once and for all that Jesus was not the Jewish Messiah.
Well. His story is fascinating. The more Stan studied, the more he saw it. Christianity is first a Jewish religion – the early believers were mostly Jews. The prophecies all point to Jesus. The evidence is all there. As the book goes along, he marvelously unpacks his journey through the Bible and how it began to change his mind.
Now here’s my question for us today: are we this passionate about reading the Bible? OK, he was in it for the wrong reason – to begin with anyway. But he was prepared to sit and read this book so that he could figure it out. How many of us have that kind of commitment? Or on the other hand, how many of us neglect our Bibles – yes maybe we do some devotional reading or listening and so on, but we don’t really dive deep into the word of God?
Dive into Scripture
I was convicted of my own lack of effort this area a few years ago, and so I formulated the Bible in 2 years programme to help me get through the whole Bible. What a blessing it was, and I am starting it up again in July if you’d like to join me, all the details are on my website.
If an unbeliever can commit to deep study of God’s Word, and be changed by it (as we shall see), how much might God be looking to change us if we will just take the time to read His Word with passion and commitment.
I pray that like Stan Telchin, you and I will dive deep into God’s Word day by day, and be changed as we do.
