Despite the fact that my
travel with Jared to Nashville (set a new record for BBQ consumption) knocked
me off my schedule for my weekly Bible reflection message, it didn’t stop me
from actually completing my daily reading.
In fact, I achieved last year’s goal of reading through the Bible again
in the course of the year. God never
ceases to amaze me … having read through the entire Bible now for the past four
years straight, and for probably the eighth time in total … His word continues
to bring fulfillment, peace, sustenance for daily life, answers to life’s
problems, and solutions to our deepest questions. And in this message for the week, that’s sort
of what my reflection has been.
Finishing the Bible this week
meant reading through 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. I realized that I spent the past 52 weeks
waking up every single morning reading through the plan I subscribed to on my
Bible app. At times, I read through
portions of the Word that felt difficult to get through, or where I knew I was
reading because the plan said I needed to.
At times, I struggled to get through my reading without getting
distracted, and there were times when I wondered what I’d read after I’d read
it. I’m pretty sure that’s not the way
God wanted me to feel as I opened His word each day.
In all seriousness and
sincerity, when I look back over the past few years of this practice of diving
into the Bible daily I can’t help but be grateful on a variety of levels. One of the amazing things about the book of
Revelation is found in chapter 1, verse 3 …
God will bless everyone who reads this prophecy to
others, and he will bless everyone who hears and obeys it.
It should be noted that this
is in reference specifically to Jesus’s revelation to John in the book of Revelation,
but I think there are some important parallels for us.
First off, God’s Word is
meant to be read. God went so far as to
make His actual words known to us through the power of His Holy Spirit
directing the writers of the Bible. All scripture
reveals the fact that God knows the end from the beginning and hence has laid
it out to us in the Bible by way of the historicity of the Bible, the internal-
and external-consistency of the narrative, the fulfilled prophesies (over 300
just about Jesus alone), etc. He did all
that so that we would actually READ His Word.
God’s Word is meant to be
done … “obeyed” as the passage says.
Simply put, God knows how He intended for our lives to be lived; He
knows the best way for us to live; He knows (and is) love, holiness, and
truth. That is what is articulated in
His Word … not doing what’s
in His Word, by definition means doing other than fulfilling the standards He
knows are right and has outlined for us … and therefore would mean falling
short of that standard (i.e., sinning).
Finally, God’s Word is meant
to be shared (i.e., “read to others”).
The Bible holds the keys not only to life while here on earth in a
temporal sense, but more importantly provides us the crucial understanding of
how to accept the free gift of eternal life offered by Jesus through His
atoning death on the cross and resurrection on the third day afterward. To not share that is the pinnacle of
selfishness and sinfulness. It would be
the same as having a cure for a deadly disease and refusing to give it to those
around you who need it. Actually, it’s
exactly like that.
Why do I say all this
stuff? Well, I want to encourage you to
1) get into the Word regularly if you’re not, or 2) continue regularly in the
Word if you are. Every day, we need food
and water. Every day, we need spiritual
food and living water offered by God through the Bible. Very few of us ever go a few hours without
food or water, let alone an entire week.
Yet, many of us will go days, weeks, months or more without nourishing
ourselves in the most important way. As
I think back over the past several years of daily Bible reading, I have a
tangible, measurable sense of spiritual health and nutrition. There have been some challenging times over
that period, some important growth opportunities and some critical life lessons
I’ve learned … and I know without question that I was able to live through
them, and help others live through their situations such as these, because of
the fortification that God’s Word provides.
I recently read a book, God’s
Smuggler by Brother Andrew, which is an autobiographical account of a
missionary, Brother Andrew, who ministered behind the Iron Curtain during the
Cold War and emergence of communism.
Much of his ministry entailed smuggling Bibles in native languages to
these parts of the world, where doing so was illegal. Reading through some of his stories brings
vividly to light the fundamental need that Brother Andrew was filling … that of
the most basic need of hunger and thirst.
Spiritual hunger. Spiritual
thirst. You read through the accounts of
a single Bible being brought to a congregation of hundreds or to a region in a
country, and the sheer delight experienced and expressed by the
recipients. I was struck by Andrew’s
service in some super scary situations.
I was more struck by God’s provision during these events …
supernaturally controlling events to make the illegal delivery of Bibles
happen. But I was emotionally
overwhelmed by the reaction of the people who received God’s Word … and
convicted at the same time.
I have on my bookshelf no
fewer than a dozen English Bibles and probably five or six in different
languages. Yet, I struggle to make it
through a regular read of God’s Word at times.
I take the opportunity to read it freely for granted. At many times over my 15 years as a Christian
… I didn’t read it at all. It’s time for
me / us to acknowledge it as the privilege it really is.
This week … no, this YEAR …
let’s ask God to heighten our awareness of the preciousness of His Bible. Let’s prayerfully seek a great insatiable
hunger for its nourishment, and a thirst for its refreshment. For those of us not reading it … let’s commit
to, even if one verse a day. God can
speak volumes through a single verse of His Word, especially if our hearts are
open to it. For those of us who are
reading but not regularly, let’s buck up.
For those of us reading regularly but in a rote manner, let’s realize
that there are millions of people on the earth who don’t get to have a Bible. Either way, submit to God through His Word
and He WILL honor it in ways
that will blow us away! His Word NEVER returns void!
In the strong love of Christ,
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