A lot of people ask me what’s my favorite book of the Bible, and I don’t really have one.
Of course, I make something up… I’ll say Mark or Luke, or Philippians, or Revelations just to see what reaction I’ll get.

But the truth is, I don’t have a favorite book of the Bible. Because it’s all good, silly.

I know people who spend most of their quiet or devotional time reading any of the Gospels or Epistles or Acts (so, yea, the New Testament).

But, I like to spend my devotional times reading the narrative stories and I like reading about the people God called in the Bible. Abraham. Moses. David. Saul. Samuel.

In Sunday school, we were led to believe that these folks in the Bible were just great women and men, and that’s why God called them. They’re in the Bible because they were the Michael Jordans of faith related things in their time.

Maybe that’s why the Bible had no interest for me during my teenage years. Because it was impossible to be that good and strong in faith. Maybe that’s why some folks just don’t read the Bible, because all we remember is how great these people were and there’s no way we can live up to that.

But what draws me, now, to those stories is just how human these folks were. How flawed they were. How confused and unsure they were. How broken they were. How normal they were.

I mean Peter, as a disciple, was a bit moronic. And constantly stuck his foot in his mouth. David broke 5 commandments in one chapter of the Bible. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (you can enter a snarky comment on what Biblical idea of marriage here, if you like). Abraham lied about his wife being his sister. Twice. Isaac ended up doing the same thing. Moses was a short tempered murderer. Esther had to be really convinced by Mordecai before she did the right thing.

I mean, they are normal. Their struggles aren’t foreign or trapped in their time. I struggle with things they struggled with today.

By no means, were these people perfect (except, you know, Jesus).
But the beauty of it is that God still choose them to lead the way.
They were ordinary folks, but it was God and through God that they did extraordinary things.

Starting next (next) Sunday (the 26th), our church is going to do a sermon series on the people of the Bible (the heroes and heroines, if you will). We’ll be talking about Moses, Hannah, David, Esther and Joseph this time around. I’m sure that we’ll come visit some more later in the future.

But I’m excited to share their stories (the good, the bad, the ugly and the amazing) with my folks at church.