blake studdard

I’ve moved into a new house (again), released a record that embodies everything I love to do, and now I am sitting in a condo in Panama City Beach after the first week of a Nick Thurmond tour, letting a 4 day weekend off work pass me by.

I’ve been reading the Bible more recently than i ever have.. mostly/entirely because of a reading plan i picked up on the 1st of June : “The Bible in 90 Days”

I’m finishing up Judges at the moment… I’ve been flying through this thing (the Bible).

For the first time in my life, the big picture of the Old Covenant (Old Testament – thanks JD) is making sense. I’ve taken a few Bible classes in grade school, and I’ve grown up in the Bible beating Baptist church, hearing this stuff in an intellectual setting twice a week for 18 years straight. But just now, by recklessly flying through the Bible 15 chapters a day, I’m understanding God’s heart for Israel in a real way.

Before reading the Bible this way :

I couldn’t think of a reason (apart from my personal interactions with the Lord) for the wrath-likeness of God in the Old Covenant.

I was baffled by certain arguments for the ridiculousness of OC stories as communicated by famous atheists (such as Dawkins)

After :

I’m seeing the nature of God (jealousy, faithfulness, justice) consistently displayed to Israel, and how that was necessary for their future/our present.

I’m baffled by the closed-mindedness of some of the (self-proclaimed) most ‘open-minded’ intellectuals.

While all this is great, – it’s important to know the nature of God and what it looked like historically – I’m having a bit of trouble connecting with the Lord intimately… which is my one desire. I’m aware that logical soaking is good and (maybe, maybe not) necessary to knowing the Lord, but I’m much more aware of this fine line : KNOWING ABOUT GOD is good, but ONLY when it propels me deeper into the heart of God, enabling me to KNOW GOD more.

I would stop reading the Bible until I get that experiential knowledge flowing, but this season is/has been an unusual one. It seems the more I try to get the thing I once had, as in a certain rhythm I started falling in love with, the more I get the abrupt message to stop walking that way and to keep following him into the dark.

So, once again, I don’t understand you, but I trust you, and I will follow you into the dark.