Let’s Keep Reading the Bible by Mark T. Tonkery
A book recently was released that utilized an interdenominational panel to determine the 25 books every Christian should read. Many books you would expect to be on the list were there: The Confessions of Augustine, The Imitation of Christ, Pilgrim's Progress, The Cost of Discipleship, Mere Christianity and Return of the Prodigal. One book was missing that should have been there —the Bible itself (Taken from Preaching http://www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations/11660636/).
I confess I enjoy reading books, especially religious books and books about the Bible. (My office has bookshelves full of them). Although religious books and books about the Bible have some benefit, there is no one book that can take the place of the Bible. Every Christian must make the Bible the number one book on their list to read; for the Bible is the inspired word of God (2 Tim. 3:16)
Someone has said that, “Studying the Bible is like taking vitamins. You gulp down a couple of vitamins in the morning, but no wave of energy flows through your body. You take the vitamins because they build you up. They protect you against the diseases in the environment. In the long haul, they make you strong.” Studying the Bible in some way is like taking vitamins it takes time to mature in the faith, but the work involved helps build one up in Christ and helps to protect one from the disease of sin and Satan.
George Muller, who established many orphanages throughout England in the 1800’s, once said... "I believe that the one chief reason that I have been kept in happy useful service is that I have been a lover of Holy Scripture. It has been my habit to read the Bible through four times a year; in a prayerful spirit, to apply it to my heart, and practice what I find there. I have been for sixty-nine years a happy man; happy, happy, happy."
Have you been reading and studying your Bible? If you think about it most sport fans read sports magazines. Political minded people read political news magazines. Carpenters read house plans or blue prints. Doctors read medical journals. Yet, there are millions of people in the world who claim to be Christians and never pick up a Bible and read it. I guess it never made their top 25 list of books to read?
Maybe you made a resolution at New Years to start reading the Bible. But now as we are moving into the year we have allowed the Bible to start collecting dust again. Let’s start reading it again, and let’s keep reading the Bible. What if we would try to get up early in the morning and spend time with the Lord reading His Word? Do it for seven days and see if it makes a positive difference in your life?
The best way to study the Bible is to set a certain time each day and spend time studying and praying. Just reading only 30 minutes a day will allow you to read the New Testament in 40 days! It is also essential for our spiritual well being that we come to Worship, Sunday school and Wednesday Night Bible class where the teaching of the Bible takes places weekly (Heb. 10:25). Daily Bible study and being involved regularly in worship will help us draw closer to God and help us become the people God needs us to be in our day and time. Try it!!
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
(Romans 10:17)
