Start a Conflagration

Last Thursday night, my best friend and I went to St. Louis Bread Co. to have a bible study/accountability time. Let me just say that the experience we had just blew my mind. We started out both reading Matthew chapter 21. The part of the chapter that stuck out to both of us were verses 18-22:

• 18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once.
  20When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. 22And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."

I am so much like that fig tree. In the same way that it did everything it needed to do to look like a fig tree, I do everything I need to do to look like a good Christian. But I haven't been bearing much fruit.

We asked ourselves why we don't do everything we can to share our faith. If we have faith we can move mountains, and we will receive everything we ask. We've been given everything we need to reach a dying world, and we rarely take advantage of it. I hide behind serving at church, saying "I'm serving in a ministry, that's enough." But my service rarely leaves the church building. I use the fact that I don't know my bible well as a reason I cant reach out to people. I'm not good at quoting scripture, and even when I know a verse, I usually cant tell you where it is. Well, neither of those things are good enough reasons to not share.

So, we decided that we were going to make more of an effort to share our faith with those around us. And at about that time, a man walks up to our table and asks if we're reading the bible. He then quotes a scripture to us and asks if we have any quotes from the bible. Tori tells him her favorite verse. Then he proceeds to tell us he is an atheist. He told us why he doesn't believe, and went on his way. Wow. If that wasn't God telling us something, I don't know what else it could be. We then decided that we needed to gain a better knowledge of the Bible. We decided to read 4 chapters a day until we're finished. And to hold each other accountable to doing so. We talk on the phone everyday about trivial things, so why not cut some of that out and talk about things that really matter? Its been amazing so far. We're only through the first 16 chapters of Genesis, which we've read over and over in the past, but I've already learned so much. God is already showing me so many things and growing me into a stronger Christian. I cant wait to see where we go, and what we learn as we go through the Bible, but I know its going to be phenomenal.