READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL YOU DUMMIE!!!

So I just got finished leading my first Connections group. For those of you reading this blog who are not familiar with what Connections is, let me explain. Connections is a bye-weekly Sunday evening Bible study that ROCKS!!! It's about....are you ready for this...."connecting" with people. That's why we call it Connections. We (my church) have several small groups that meet across Hendersonville for a time of food, fellowship, and the Word. I meet at my friend Ricks' house. Rick is the Youth Pastor at my church. He is on vacation right now, so I'm holding down the fort for him while he's gone. Anyway, it was a good time. Attendance was way down. We usually run around 30, but were down to 8 tonight. Our study was centered on Colossians chapter 3. Verse 16 talks about how we should let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. That somehow led to me telling a story about how important it is to get into the Word of God. This past Christmas, my daughter got one of those 3,000,000 piece toys that require a team architectural engineers to help in the assembly process. Without having such a team handy, I was left with two choices. I could either do it myself...or read the instructions. Being a guy, of course I tackled this project without cracking the manual. I figured that I would have it together in about 15 minutes. So I'm sitting there 30 minutes later stewing in my own "testosterone field" of rage. I'm about ready to turn 3,000,000 pieces into 6,000,000 pieces. Bottom line was that I was in a HUGE MESS. I began to get a stress headache just about the time I looked across the room to find the instructions. I thought to myself for a minute and finally caved. I opened the instructions, and spent a very short time reading them. 10 minutes later, Brianna was playing with her new toy with a beautiful smile on her face. Moral of the story? Had I just read the manual prior to tackling this project, I wouldn't have gotten into this HUGE MESS. That's what the Bible is. It's the instruction manual to life. Let's use wisdom, and crack it's pages prior to taking on the "project of life." We should read it...apply it...and let it dwell in our hearts richly for future projects. Should we choose not to read it, then you might as well guarantee that at some point you will find yourself in a HUGE MESS. Whether you do it up front, or at the time of a HUGE MESS, you're going to have to eventually crack the pages anyway. Just save yourself the hissy fit and be proactive in your life. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST.