Good morning, my friend.I hope this day finds you well. I just wanted to share a little something with you.

This year at Albion camp
While you were teaching, you made a statement concerning the word of God.
When you made this statement, it arrested my attention. Though it sounded simplistic; It was a call to deeper consecration.


I pondered it over and over, I took it to heart.
I’m 67 years old, I have been living for God since I was a teenager.
I have a stack of worn out bibles.
I have acquired much knowledge through reading and studying and listening to the word of God.
But I will have to be honest, I probably did a lot of this through a sense of obligation and commitment.
Heaven is my goal and i’m gonna reach it.
But when you said early in your christian walk, that you made the bible “YOUR HOBBY”
Something you wanted to do, and something you loved to do and in so doing, you have become a sound and stable individual. Your knowledge that you have acquired through your love affair with the word, has helped the masses.
So I came home and I said, “I want the Bible to be my hobby”
So in my morning devotion, no matter how silly it may sound, I picked up the bible, and I said, “let’s start at the beginning.”
I began to read Genesis 1:1 and I kid you not, I began to see things that I had never seen in my entire life.
I was like a child with a new toy.
When I read the Bible out of desire and love, God began to reveal little hidden treasures to me that I had never seen.
If I’m not mistaken, the Bible says in Psalms 25:14 “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”
And I feel that the term fear means a deep respect and a holy wonder and sincere love for Him.
I want those treasures.
One day we will give an account for every secret thing. I hope many of those secret things in my heart, are found to be His word that I have hid there.

I got hungry for the next verse, and when I finished chapter 1, I said, “I gotta read chapter 2; I wanna see what happened next.”
I know, it sounds like a new convert, just beginning his journey; Maybe after all these years, that’s what it is.
I have shared this experience in a few churches since camp. I have had people come to me and say, what was that again? ” Make the Bible your hobby.”

I hope the idea catches on.

Thank you so much for sharing your heart with me and others.
You have opened a brand new way of looking at scripture. I will never be the same again.
The Bible will never again be a book of obligation to me, but you have created a love affair in my life for the writings of the Master.


Thank you again.
God bless you.

Rev Phelps