A Well-Known Book

 

There’s something special about returning to a well-loved book, even if you know how the story goes. One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen, and I am currently reading, for perhaps the third or fourth time, Sense and Sensibility. We read a story differently when we know how it ends; we pick up on details we missed before, we slow down and appreciate the descriptions and dialogue more, and we experience the characters as people we already know and love. Additionally, we may have had life experiences since the last read-through that give us a greater understanding and sympathy for what the characters face as we read it this time. There are plenty of books I have read that I have no desire to turn back to, but the books I’ve loved most are a delight to immerse myself in once again.

I was thinking about this today in regard to Pastor Adam’s new series. For many of us, the book of Philippians is a well-known book. We have heard it preached through in a Sunday morning series (perhaps more than once), and we may have studied it in Sunday School, and/ or on our own at home. Out of my own personal love for the book’s message, I even chose to memorize it back in 2005. It took all year, but it has been a great blessing in my life to know its words so well. But despite all this, when I found out that this was the next series we would be going through in church, I didn’t say, “Not again!” Instead, there was joy in returning to a deeply-appreciated book that I do know well. For as in the reading of Sense and Sensibility, and even more so because Philippians is part of God’s living and inspired Word, I will see things I haven’t seen before. I will be impacted in different ways than when I heard it preached last. Meanings of words and depths of truths will open to me in fresh ways and will take deeper root in my heart. My life experiences since the last time I studied this book will help shape a greater understanding of how to apply what Paul wrote so many years ago.

So, whether this is your first time to study Philippians in depth or the tenth time, I hope you, along with me, will open your heart to hear what God wants to say. I pray that we would see His glory shine through the words He spoke through Paul. As we study this epistle, may the Lord change us to be more like Christ and less like the world as we “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil.2:14).

--Amy O'Rear