A Shocking Confession

What I’m going to do today may shock you. It may change your view of me forever.

I love the Bible. I love to read it. I love to teach it and preach it. However, there is one book of the Bible that I don’t like and you won’t believe which one it is.

I don’t like the Psalms.

Ask most people to name their least favorite book in the Bible, you will hear Numbers. Leviticus. Maybe 1 and 2 Chronicles.

Not the Psalms. They are beloved to most people. Not me.

Don’t misunderstand. I read them. I have some that I enjoy.

But as a whole I don’t like them. I don’t enjoy them like others do.

I think it has something to do with poetry. Poetry can be beautiful, but to just sit down and read it is difficult for me. I prefer narratives and letters.

Now, if I got to listen to them put to music, it might be a different. Maybe it I was able to hear them sung by the choirs as they were originally meant to be, I would have a totally different opinion of the Psalms.

So, if you want to know what my favorite book of the Bible is, I’ll let you know that too. It’s the Gospel of John, with Ephesians right on its heels.

What’s your least favorite book of the Bible? What’s your favorite?

Throw The Baby Out

Have you thrown the baby out lately?

You know what I mean.

Have you thrown the baby out with the bath water?

I don’t know if you know where the saying came from.  I’ve read that it came from back in the day when people didn’t take daily, weekly or even monthly baths.  When warm weather came, they hauled a bunch of water in and each person got to take a bath in the water.  The father started, then it proceeded to the mother and then all the other members of the family.  By the time the youngest got to take a bath, you can imagine how dirty the water was.  There evidently was danger in losing a young child when the water was thrown out.

We do that ourselves, figuratively, don’t we?

We pay attention to the dirty water  that someone is in and throw them out with it.

We don’t look at the value of someone versus the circumstances that surround them.

We could do that with David, couldn’t we?  Shepherd?  Check.  Killed Goliath?  Check.  Wrote Psalms?  Check.  Man after God’s heart?  Check.  Adulterer?  Check.  Murderer?  Check.

Kick him to the curb.

Shun him.

Banish him.

That no-good, no-account.

The problem with that way of thinking is that God didn’t think that way.

We often think, though,  that is the way God thinks today, don’t we?

I think He thinks far less often like that than we think He does.  And when and  if He does, He doesn’t bother to consult us.

Now, look around.  Who is danger of us thinking that way about them?  Let’s stop right now before we start.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Have you ever done something the equivalent of throwing the baby out with the bath water?