We are blessed in our day to have Scripture readily available in a variety of translations. There’s no excuse for not feeding daily on the Word of God. Today’s excerpt from The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart is found on pages 94 and 95:“Without a solid grounding in the Word of God, believers are vulnerable to every passing ‘wind of doctrine.’ They are susceptible to being blown off course in their journey of faith, and in danger of shipwrecking their faith on the rocks of false teaching.
“This is why it is so important that believers establish the practice of daily reading, meditation, and study in the Bible. Increasingly, pastors and church leaders are employing a hermeneutic of convenience to allow them to embrace doctrines and practices which cannot be supported from the whole counsel of God in Scripture. And they are leading multitudes of believers into a pattern of drift, away from the Lord and His Word, into another gospel and misguided Christian faith. Unless we are faithfully reading, meditating on, and studying God’s Word, we will be vulnerable to being led astray from the path of evangelical orthodoxy into a form of ‘near Christianity’ that is, in fact, no Christianity at all.
“We are reading the Scriptures wrong if we aren’t reading them regularly, and if we aren’t daily searching the Scriptures to understand the good and perfect will of God for our lives.
“Paul is emphatic that our reading and study of the Bible should not be piecemeal or hunt-and-peck, but comprehensive. He insisted that all Scripture is the very Word of God. He considered it important that his own study and teaching should take into consideration ‘all the counsel of God’ in Scripture. A survey of the quotes and allusions to the Old Testament in Paul’s letters reveals his ease and skill in moving throughout what was then the Bible in presenting his case for the Gospel of the Kingdom and the life of faith.
“Paul commanded those who read his epistles to imitate him as he imitated Jesus Christ. I take this to mean, with respect to our subject, that we who follow in the footsteps of Paul and Jesus should be good students of the whole Bible.”
For reflection or discussion
1. Are there any parts of the Bible you find difficult to understand or hard to read? Explain.
2. How can continuous reading of all the Scriptures help you to master those difficult texts?
Scripture is a mine of spiritual truth, pointing to Jesus and calling us to the fullness of salvation in Him. But we’ll never discover the deep gems of God’s Word unless we commit to daily mining, evaluating, and taking to heart all that He wants to teach us. Read the Scriptures, and read and meditate in them all. Share today’s podcast with a friend, then get together to discuss what you’ve read from Scripture. Your copy of The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart is waiting for you as a free PDF download in The Ailbe Bookstore.
