Make A Commitment To Read The Bible!
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles Tags: Bible Lessons on Bible Study, Bible Lessons on CommitmentAfter 30 years as a preacher of God’s Word, a New Jersey minister concluded, “The Bible is the best-selling, least-read, and least-understood book in the world.” In his view and experience, “Biblical illiteracy is rampant.”
George Gallup, the foremost religion pollster in the United States, agrees with this preacher. “We revere the Bible,” he says, “but we don’t read it.” In a recent survey, 64 percent of those questioned said they were “too busy” to read the Bible. The average household has three Bibles but less than half the people in the United States can name the first book in the Old Testament. One survey found that 12 percent of its Christian respondents identified Noah’s wife as “Joan of Arc!”
The solution to Biblical illiteracy? Read The Bible! Won’t you please join me in a commitment to read the Bible on a daily basis (Acts 17:11)?
It will take about 15 minutes a day to follow a daily reading regimen of God’s Word. Are we too “busy” to take this small amount of our time each day to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18)?
The goal of our reading the Bible is not merely “information”, but “transformation” (Romans 12:2). Someone once summarized 2 Timothy 3:16 by saying, “God’s Word shows us “which” road to take (doctrine). It tells us “when” we get off track (reproof); “how” to get back on track (correction); and “how” to stay on track (instruction in righteousness).”
In 2 Timothy 2:15, the Apostle Paul by inspiration penned these words: “Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handing aright [holding a straight course in or rightly dividing] the word of truth” (ASV).
During this New Year – 2005, let us heed the above words of the inspired apostle and be found “diligently” reading and studying God’s inspired word. We’ll be glad we did!