The blessings of scouting the Scriptures

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“Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.”
Romans 15:4 New Living Translation

I believe that is a female Dark-eyed Junco, but I needed help to make that determination.

Our friends, Mark and Sarah, stopped by our house recently. I was scouting through pictures on my camera of birds feeding at our bird feeder when they arrived. Having positioned my camera on my tripod, I used an intervalometer set to take one picture every second (I took over 2,000). 99% of the pics didn’t include any birds. Then I saw this picture on my camera’s LCD. I didn’t know what this bird was.

Sarah retrieved her bird identification books out from her car and pulled up a couple of apps on her phone to try to identify the bird. Was it a sparrow, finch, grosbeak, or some other bird? It took us some digging but we finally discovered that it was a female Dark-eyed Junco.

We were determined to find the answer.

Would that we had the same determination to dig into God’s Word to discover what he desires for our lives! What does God want us to know about who he is? What does God want us to know about his mercy and grace in Christ. What does God want us to know about ourselves? All of these important questions are addressed in the Scriptures, but do we dig, do we really want to know the answers?

I know a number of people who do, and like Sarah, they constantly dig into God’s Word because they have experienced the hope and encouragement that comes from digging deeper. This doesn’t mean that they always like what they hear in the Bible, but it will always lead them to Christ.

In Christ we experience hope. In Christ we are encouraged.

Text and Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner