Introduction: Fruit Loops® and Origami

Have you ever yawned in church?

I have. And contrary to popular belief, holding the bulletin in front of your mouth doesn’t fool the man behind the pulpit one bit.

Growing up as a preacher’s kid, I’ve mastered bulletin origami and built forts out of hymnals to pass the time. I’ve heard more sermons about David than I’ve seen episodes of the Cosby show. Well, almost. I don’t remember exactly when I learned about Moses and when I figured out that disobeying Mommy was sin. Thankfully, the Bible’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

So I know a lot of the stories—and the three points and a poem that go with them. To make the Bible introspectively new, I’ve had to discover where in the Word I transact with God—the part that confronts me, that makes me make a choice. There’s no neutral ground with God, and his words require that I walk away different in spirit and actions.

I ask myself tough questions. Not the subterfuge of unknowns, like Cain’s wife and Abraham’s Bosom—the nitty-gritty, rubber-meets-the-road questions that push against my comfort zone.  Evaluations of my faith and motives and perspective—the kinds of questions in this book.

Maybe they’re the questions you’ve been asking yourself or maybe the ones you, like me, have been avoiding. Or maybe you’re new to the faith and haven’t gotten around to these yet. What’s great about God is that he’ll have your heart prepared only for what he wants to work on at present. His insights, like his mercies, are new every morning.

You probably know all the characters, too—know that David goes with Goliath, that Jacob pairs with Esau, that Paul comes with Silas in the collector set. And it’s easy for us to think of them as bearded fogeys in turbans and robes riding camels far from our daily experience. It’s easy to write off their achievements of faith as mythical and distant.

I tried with this book to put the saints on your street— mine anyway—to see them as people we might know or become. Hence, the following studies bear the name of their fictitious businesses.  So walk the street. Stop in each shop, and look around. Get the goods on how to live this Christian life.

The publisher and I are making morning devotions easier for you by putting portions of the scripture passages [some of which are abbreviated in this book for space] at the beginning of each study. It’s like putting vitamins in your Fruit Loops®, I guess; but it makes sure you get some Bible with your breakfast—without having to flip back and forth between two books. Read the Scripture passages first: that’s where God’s going to do business with you.

When you get done with each devotional, check out the questions on the flip side of “Word has it . . .”  Yep, those are the questions I mentioned. Hey, if I had to answer them, you can’t plead the fifth.

Mikey liked it. You might, too.

© 2003: nonymous, ink.
a ryan george company

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture texts are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977.