Read the Bible

I would gamble to say we all have one in our houses. They’re in all church buildings, hotel bedside tables, readily available. Yet the large majority of people have not read the Bible.

When I say read I do not mean picked out verses here and there and memorized them, which while wonderful is lacking in context. I mean read as in began in Genesis and read through Revelation, all 66 books.

Why?

I think for many people it’s a daunting task, it’s a lot of pages with a lot of hard to pronounce names and places. And where to even begin?

I think for others they don’t understand the importance, it’s not at the top of their list of to-do’s. Besides, they attend church every Sunday and the person upfront probably has read the Bible and they can just regurgitate it for us and that’s just as good right? Or they pick up a devotional that has tidbits of scripture in them and then a lot of someone else’s words… Let me ask you something, if someone pre-chewed your hamburger for you and served it to you on a plate would that be just as delicious? No. Gross. If you were starving and someone just kept giving you tiny parts of a meal every day would you not still be starving? Our modern Christian culture is starving for The Truth but have been lead to believe that pre-chewed and scraps are just as good as the real, perfectly prepared feast.

Okay so let’s ask why again. Why is it so important that we, you and I pick up the Bible and read it for ourselves? Then we’ll answer how do we do this.

First off reading the Bible for ourselves allows us to get to know the One True God. Creator, Almighty Counselor. This is important because to worship God and have a relationship with Him, you have to know who He says He is and you cannot do that without reading what He has breathed out through human hands. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Secondly, reading the Bible for ourselves allows us to recognize false teachings. There are PLENTY out there today. If we do not know what is in the Word of God, we will not know what’s NOT in the Word of God. Any pastor or teacher could say anything and we would just blindly listen because we don’t know! That is so incredibly dangerous. People take verses out of context and twist them to obstruct the true meaning. People just up and add things to the Word of God like – every sin is equal in God’s eyes – that’s not in the Bible but I was taught that growing up. People can wrongly interpret the Word and then accidentally teach false doctrine to others. The ONLY WAY to protect ourselves and our neighbors from this is to put in the work and read the Word for ourselves.

There are a million other reasons we need to read the Word but let’s marinate on those two for now.

So how. How do we read this large book?

I began in the beginning- Genesis and read through Revelation. It took me 4 years. I know a ton of people that have done it in one or less and that’s completely possible. I’m a slow reader and there was a lot that I stopped to study more in-depth. During those 4 years I felt guilty it was taking me so long to get through it but when I look back, that was a beautiful time of growth and intimate time with my Father.

In the back of most Bibles there is a year long reading plan. There are also chronological Bibles that put all of the text in the order it most likely happened.

There are plenty of ways to read it but the key is just to start. It will be difficult, some books more so than others. But the Word of God is living. As God will’s, things will be revealed to you through the Scriptures. But I challenge you today to begin. To actually read the Word is far more important than we admit. To actually read it is to sit down at the beautiful feast that God has prepared and enjoy!