One day while our son was still too young to read, I heard him “reading” one of his favorite books out loud. He knew the characters and narrated the major points correctly, but the details were off…way off. He was simply using the pictures to make it up as he went. By exercising his “artistic license”, he voiced the good parts, skipped the boring stuff and changed the rest to match his preferences. His story was entertaining, but it didn’t match the author’s version much at all.

We can do that with the Bible too. We can get enthusiastic about verses we like, skip others we don’t necessarily care for, and claim ignorance to the rest. The hard truth however is that a disciple is called to live according to what was given by the Holy Spirit, not our own edited version. Some passages may be tough to understand, but others are just simply tough to live, which is the real reason for their lower position on the “favorites list”.

“All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 HCSB

Perhaps today would be a good time to shake-up the old “favorites list” and see what else the Author included.