On My Own - Part 3 finale +

In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
Ephesians 2:12 NLT

Growing up, I used to love solving logic problems, acronyms and acrostic puzzles in the magazines. Logic problems because they caused you to look for more than what was obvious; acronyms and acrostics for basically the same reason. Acronyms have hidden meanings, such as the ichthys from the first-century church. With acrostic puzzles, there are two parts. The first part provides clues for words that have numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks which, when solved, will spell out a famous quotation or text.

Relatively simple acrostics may merely spell out the letters of the alphabet in order; such an acrostic may be called an 'alphabetical acrostic' or abecedarius. Abecedarius is also a generic term for an alphabet book, which dates back to Biblical writings such as found in several of the Psalms. They used successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the first letter of each stanza. (My favorite Biblical acrostic is Psalm 37.)

During my recent stay in the hospital, family and friends brought enough puzzle books for me to open a small newsstand! I was reminded of how studying the Word of God is similar to all of these puzzles rolled into one. There's the obvious - the plain and simple meaning of the text. Then another where an implied sense alludes to a deeper meaning if we'll take the time to look for it. And then there are Scriptures like Matthew 26:28 and John 6:52-58, which if ingested literally (no pun intended) would defy God's law altogether. These are the 'sud' (pronounced sood like wood) which means 'hidden' meaning.

There is much to discover about Scripture and about the Lord. It takes Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One thing I know - I cannot do it on my own. As a Christian, if I remove Christ from the explanation, I'm left with I-A-N... a perfect acronym for 'I am nothing.' And without Him, that's exactly what I am.

Prayer:

Father,
          Apart from Christ, we don't have You and we don't have hope. In You, we live and move and have our very existence. Keep us close to Your heart, O God, where we can find life and hope eternal. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen