Five Words In

I tried explaining to God that I wasn't qualified to write about Him, and, as if to illustrate my point, I got tripped up only FIVE WORDS IN when I began my intensive study of the book of Acts a few days back.


I had assumed there would be topics I would chase through Strong's Concordance and Preston's Study Bible and maybe a few other places, but to get flummoxed by the fifth word is not the way to get off to a good start.  And to be honest, it made me feel a bit daft.


Acts chapter one begins, "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do...".  Well now, I generally pride myself in having a relatively firm grip on the English language, so it was clear that Theophilus was either the name of the book the author is referring to as "[his] former book," or is the name of a person (which did not seem likely) or to a place (which didn't make a whole lot of sense grammatically, but would make my study a little easier).


So I backed up a few paragraphs to read the introductions to the book of Acts, and subsequently the book of Luke, in both my old Student Bible and Preston's Study Bible, and, lo and behold, began to learn the most fascinating information.


First, Acts is believed to have been written by Luke, the well-educated physician with a superb grasp of the Greek language and a gift for intriguing storyline, who also, of course, wrote the book of Luke.  Ancient Greek culture has long been a source of fascination to me, so the fact that God has planted me here in the book of Acts with this instruction to write about Him is both awe-inspiring and supremely comforting.  I may be inadequate in knowledge and twisted up in flawed theology, but this is clearly the proper starting place for a firm foundation to be staked.


Back to that fifth word, though: Theophilus, as it would become clear with just the slightest bit of study (which I should point out had never occurred to me to do before this point) is neither the name of the former book (that would be 'Luke') or the name of a city or a church.  Theophilus is a particular person.


Can you imagine?  A book in the Bible (two actually) that is addressed to a single man?  I find that mind-boggling.


And so it was that after two days of studying the introductions to Acts that I finally actually began today to focus on the book itself.  If there is so much to glean from a brief introductory summary, then I am fairly beside myself to see what else will be learned here.  And how is it that I have just sailed through Bible reading before, moving through a few chapters a day without more than a cursory glance at most of what was written there?  I mean, it spoke to me, I learned truths, but retained very close to nothing in the way of actual deep-in-the-soul understanding.  Obviously my attention had not been full or even, dare I admit it, as much as I would have devoted to a run-of-the-mill detective novel.


This, too, is humbling.