meeting the unexpected.

I met the most amazing and inspirational man this week. He is 92 years old and a bible scholar. A friend approached me and said I have someone you simply must meet. She introduced me to him and he was precious! Absolutely precious! There are few things more adorable than a sharp, intelligent and personable elderly man. I introduced myself and said I was reading and studying the bible for the first time this year. He said "We all have holy spirit in us. Jesus had THE Holy Spirit completely but we all have some. We just need to recognize it." We proceeded to talk for another 30 minutes. I could have talked to him for hours and I think (hope) he would have talked to me for hours too. He said he has always had "kids" come talk to him about it. He said he was non-demoninational. He said he always had a hard time with churches putting their spin on religion and the bible. Believing what they want out of it. I eagerly agreed. This is exactly what I thought too! He said it was always hard for him to find a bible study group that just wanted to study the bible and not study the views of their churches. Again, I'm sitting there eagerly agreeing! I probably seemed like a babbling idiot because here was this man 92 years old, immensely knowledgable about the bible and I've missed out on his wonderful bible study groups he used to have. He told me about these sessions lasting until 1am at times with people that are now "religiously pedigreed" as he calls PhD's
See this man is adorable!
He told me that before he had the nondemoninational study group he went to several church based bible studies and he was even kicked out of two churches. It just makes me laugh. I can appreciate a religious rebel.

I only wish I had met him during his prime. I'm sure he was quite the force to be reckoned with. He still just quoted off versus like nothing. We talked for a while longer and I could have talked to him for days I think.
It is amazing to me that since my quest to read the bible, I have met so many wonderful people and met so many sides to people I have never known before. I have lots of people that come up to me and ask how my reading is going and what I think of certain things. We all want a little fellowship but are too afraid of judgement or being told our interpretations of the bible are incorrect, or the church believes this or that. I wish I could find a non-demoninational bible study group that encourages the communication, understanding and appreciation of the many different interpretations of different parts of the bible.
That would be great!!