Thoughtful

This is a lesson I learned before I even started taking classes in college.

Every incoming student at OCC takes the Bible Knowledge Entrance Exam a few days before classes start.  It has no bearing on the classes you are placed in, but when students graduate, they take the exact same test again to measure how much they learned throughout their years in Bible college.

I admit, I walked into the testing room with some arrogance.  I had read the Bible two or three times from start to finish throughout high school.  I had read many books about the Bible.  I knew stories that many Christians my age had never heard before.  I was confident that this was going to be easy test.

I suspect that this kind of arrogance might be the real reason this test is required.

I was only a few questions in before I realized that maybe I knew a lot compared to some, but I still had a long way to go.  I may have been able to answer the questions specifically about the content, but I knew next to nothing about cultural background, historical dates, original languages.  I couldn't tell you whether the book of Revelation was actually the last book written or if it was the book of Luke.  I had no idea how much I was missing in the book of Isaiah.

Realizing how much I did not know, I jumped in to college ready to learn.  One of my first semester classes was Isaiah, which was actually a junior/senior level class, thanks to a minor misunderstanding with the professor that helped me set up my schedule.  I had a chance to drop the class and replace it with something else, but I chose to tough it out, and I loved every minute of it.  Because of this class, I began to understand how the books of the Old Testament fit together and what Isaiah was talking about in his prophecy.

I spent five years at Ozark, working toward my Bachelor's degree.  I took all the required classes for my degree, I audited a couple, and I took a few more for credit than I needed to because I just really wanted to take those classes.

Right before graduation, I sat down in a large classroom with my graduating class to take the Bible Knowledge Exam again.  This time, I found it exceedingly easy and went through the questions with little trouble.

A couple days later, one of the professors stopped me when we crossed paths on campus.  He congratulated me, but it was obvious I didn't know what for.  It was at that moment that I learned that I had the top score in the exam for my class.  It is an achievement I am proud of because the exam is so difficult. I did not get every question right; a perfect score is almost unheard of.

I still have more to learn.  Academically, I am considering starting my Masters degree soon.  But outside of academics, there is always more to learn.  As our lives change, the way we relate to the word of God changes.  We hear different lessons and nuances in the words of the Bible that open our eyes a little wider to the character of God, the sinfulness of man, and  God's plan for us.

Because the word of God has so much depth, we should always be spending time reading and studying.

What recent discovery have you made in the Bible?