The Holy Rabbi Akiva

Tiny Stream
One day as Rabbi Akiva was shepherding his flocks, he noticed a tiny stream trickling down a hillside.
The stream dripped over a ledge as it wended towards the river below. Underneath the ledge was a large boulder, which bore a deep impression. The ongoing drip of water over the centuries had hollowed away the stone. Akiva realised that if mere water could do this to hard rock, how much more could God's Word carve a way into his heart?
The Holy Rabbi realised that if the water had flowed over the rock in one great sheet of water all at once, the rock would not have been changed at all. It was the slow but steady impact of each small droplet, year after year, that had completely transformed the stone.
Rabbi Akiva began his studies, and is the luminous Scholar and Teacher of the Word of God we remember and honour today.
I love this story. The Holy Word of God has the power to transform us in ways which we can only imagine.

Holy Word of God
Why not study the Holy Word of God? Why not read the Bible today?
When I first started seriously studying the Bible, I was seventeen.
At seventeen I felt a deep thirst to learn more about the depths of the Word of God.
I started by reading all through the Bible, from the Book of Genesis to Revelation. That took me a while.
I read for a half hour to an hour a day, depending on work commitments.
Then when I had finished, I read through it again.
I did this five or six times.
By that time, I had a steady idea of all parts of the Bible.
Then I started to do Bible courses run by Theologians to guide me.
The Word of God in the Torah and New Testament are to me like bread and something comforting to drink when I am faint with hunger. They sustain. And I can't do without them.

Why not study the Word of God?
Why not study the Bible, the Word of God, so that God leave the deep imprint of His Word and Love in your heart?

Rabbi Akiva
http://www.jewishhistory.org/rabbi-akiva-2/
With thanks to Jewishhistory.org
Photograph by Lumiere Volunteer Britain, used with kind permission