Reading the Bible[1]

In August of 1989 I had the privilege of participating in a mission trip to the bush country of East Africa.  Four of us from the church I pastor lived in tents in front of a tiny, unfinished, mud-and-sticks church building six miles from the nearest settlement.

 I’ve been overseas enough to know that many customs I have come to identify with Christianity will clash at some points with the culture of our hosts.  My experiences have taught me to anticipate swallowing with difficulty some of my American expectations (not to mention s few other things!) about how Christians should live.  But I was unprepared for some of my encounters with many of the professing Christians in this equatorial setting.  Lying, stealing, and immorality were common and generally accepted, even among the leadership of the church.  Theological understanding was as scarce as water, the disease of doctrinal error as common as malaria.

 Soon I discovered one of the main reasons this church looked as though it had been started by Corinthian missionaries.  No one had a Bible–not the pastor, not a deacon, no one.  The pastor had only half a dozen sermons, all half-baked over the coals of a few Bible-story recollections.  Every sixth week came the same sermon.  The only real contact with Scripture happened with the occasional visit of a missionary or when a denominational worker would preach.  For almost everyone in the church, these infrequent, vicarious brushes with the Bible were all they’d ever known. 

 Reading the Bible

There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture (1 Peter 2:1-2).  The reason for this is obvious.  Namely, ultimate truth about God does not come from your imagination.  Truth about God comes from His Word (John 17:17; 1 Peter 1:24-25; Psalm 19:7-11).  In the Bible God tells us specifics about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, His living Word.  The Bible unfolds the law of God and shows us how we’ve all broken it.  There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing substitute for breakers of God’s law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be made right with God.  In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord; we learn what is pleasing to God as well as what is ultimately best and most fulfilling for ourselves.  None of this essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible.  Therefore if we would know God truly, then we must know His Word.

 Reasons to Read the Bible

First, the Bible is God’s Word.  Though God used human writers to produce the Bible, these writers were guided by the Holy Spirit to produce God’s written Word (2 Peter 1:20-21).  As a result, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 confidently declares, “All Scripture is inspired by God [the Greek literally means “God-Breathed”] and [by virtues of this fact alone the Bible is] profitable for [our] teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”    

Second, Jesus wants us to know God through the Bible.  Jesus often questioned people’s understanding of life and God by beginning with the words, “Have you not read…?”  This Jesus followed with a quote from the Bible (see Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31).”  In other words, Jesus assumed that those claiming to be the people of God should know the Word of God. 

 Further, the Bible is essential for spiritual health and growth.  For example: Romans 10:17 says that, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  And Jesus said “Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).”  In other words, just as physical food is necessary to sustain physical life, so spiritual food (the Bible) is necessary to sustain and develop spiritual life.  A steady diet of the Bible is vital for growing in Jesus.

 How Often Should I Reading

The late British pastor John Blanchard once said,

Surely we only have to be honest with ourselves to know how regularly we need to turn to the Bible. How often do we face problems, temptations and pressure?  Every day!  Then how often do we need instruction, guidance and greater encouragement?  Every day!  To catch all these felt needs up into an even greater issue, how often do we need to see God’s face, hear His voice, feel His touch, know His power?  The answer to all these questions is the same: every day!  As the American evangelist D.L. Moody put it, “A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week.  We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.”

Suggestions

Here are four suggestions for success in reading the Bible.  First find the time.  Plan a regular time to meet with the Lord.  Try to make it the same time everyday so that it becomes a scheduled habit. Don’t leave your time with the Lord to chance, for what you don’t plan for will not take place. 

 Second try a Bible reading schedule. Most have never read a 1,000 plus page book before and so may get discouraged at the Bible’s sheer length.  However using a reading schedule spreads your reading over the course of a year or more and so makes the task less daunting.  In about fifteen minutes a day you can read the Bible in a year.  You can obtain a reading schedule by clicking this link Reading_schedule.pdf. Note: if you’ve never read the Bible, start with the New Testament to learn about Jesus and His truth through His apostles.   

 Third, when you read try to apply the Bible to your life by asking yourself questions like: (1) Is there a command to obey in this passage?  (2) Is there an example to follow?  (3) Is there an error to avoid?  (4) Is there a sin to forsake?  (5) Is there something I learn about God?  (6) Is there something that gives me cause to be thankful?

 Fourth, follow your reading with a time of prayer.  Many have found the acrostic ACTS helpful in praying, as it summarizes the basic info Jesus gives us in the Lord’s Prayer.  It means when you pray practice: (1) Adoration (adore/ praise/ exalt the Lord), (2) Confession (of your sins), (3) Thanksgiving (to God for His blessings, even through trouble), and (4) Supplication (which means giving God your requests for you & others).      

 Conclusion

Robert Sumner, in his book The Wonder of the Word of God, tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion.  His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands.  He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.  Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips.  Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille.  But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters.  One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them.  Like a flash he thought, “I can read the Bible using my tongue.”  At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times.  If he can do that, you can discipline yourself to read the Bible and pray.  It’s worth it!