Bible Reading Part II

Okay, so I’ve been talking about my Bible reading plan and how to approach those days when you simply do not have the time to read or when you are unable to read for whatever reason (including laziness). Now I’d like to take a few minutes to share a few more thoughts about the Bible. Most of this will sound like I’m preaching to the choir, but if you would bear with me I think this bears repeating.

For some reason a lot of people think that the Bible is boring or dull or just a list of names. Not so.

The Bible is an interesting book. It is a great read. You’ve got wars, betrayals, famines, births, deaths, love affairs, angels talking to people, God doing amazing and miraculous things, and so much more – prophets sitting under trees being fed by birds, poetry, and love stories, and all this in just the Old Testament…I mean really!

Quite simply, there is no other book that will speak to your heart the way the Bible does and I haven’t even mentioned that it has the answer for your every need. If that isn’t reason alone to read it, I don’t know what is. And I still haven’t even touched on the main reason to read it.

The MAIN reason to read the Bible…

The Bible is God’s holy and precious word. In it He is speaking to us. To you, me – us. It is His Word telling us about Himself. It is about Himself/God and a Savior who loves you with an everlasting and incomprehensible love. Did you hear that!

Everlasting
Incomprehensible
Unchanging

Not based on anything you do or do not do…a love that isn’t fickle or inconsistent or subject to change…a love that is forever and doesn’t falter.

The Bible is about a Savior who loves you so much that He was willing to die for YOU. For you…unworthy, ugly, sinful you. (And yes you are, and yes I am…and yes we need this Savior because without Him we are…without hope.)

And to those of you who think you are not "moved" by the Bible that it does not speak to you and therefore you have no need to read it…hogwash!! Here is a challenge for you – ask God to make His Word alive to you. Ask Him to speak to you as you read. Ask Him to give you a love and a passion for His Word. Ask Him to show Himself to you as you read. Then get ready because if you are faithful and you do your part by reading you are in for the ride of your life because God is going to turn your world upside down (and then He will expect you to start turning the world upside down).

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. -Isaiah 55:11

And if after reading God’s Word and asking Him to speak you are still not moved the problem is you. It is not God or the Bible. The problem is your heart and you need to lay it before the Lord and pray He has mercy on you.

Finally, if you are a Christian and you think you have the right to decide whether or not you read your Bible I would ask you to carefully and prayerfully consider this…how can you come to know who God is unless you read His Word? How can you come to know how He wants you to live if you do not read His Word. Christian books about these subjects are good and should be utilized, but they should not take the place of your Bible. Your Bible is where you start and stop. If you have time to read (or do) anything else -- be it the newspaper, blogs, emails, Facebook, text messages, fiction, self-help books, anything else, you have time to read your Bible. Do it now. Ask God to help you find the time. He will do so with joy.

I’m sorry, I said I would list this week’s Bible readings and I still have not done it. Please continue on. I promise to list it in the next post.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." –Acts 17:6-7

I have loved you with an everlasting love… -Jeremiah 31:3

Part I
Part III