I am an olympic junkie. I love both the winter and summer games. I love the human drama of athletic competition. I love the stories. I love the redemption that comes to people. I love the back stories.
I am becoming a Bible junkie. I love both the old and the new testaments. I love the human drama that can be seen in all the chapters. I love the stories. I love the redemption that comes through Christ which is foreshadowed throughout. I love the back stories.
One now I get to see every two year - they have the olympic on a two year rotation winter and summer. One I can pick up and read everyday. I find it easier to sit and watch the olympics that to sit with the Word of God. I figured out the reason why. I can watch the olympics and be moved and even motivated – good things. I when I read the Bible am moved and motivated but also I am convicted and challenged to change. That is the difference, one I can be sedentary and the other I have to be active.
What about you? Do you find yourself not as active in the Word as you are in other things?
I am going through the OneYearBible with the church I pastor and am enjoying reading the Bible all over again. I bog down some in Exodus and the Tabernacle stuff but then getting to read the NT, Psalms and Proverbs makes it all worthwhile. Man, what people miss! I do try to keep it important in my day and life (and sometime succeed).
“That is the difference, one I can be sedentary and the other I have to be active.”
Wow! Awesome stuff…I think that is the reason why some are afraid…they are afraid of change…
Bill…that is awesome as well…In December I felt conviction that I needed to read Proverbs more…I have promised God that I would read one chapter a day for an entire year…This has been great because lately Proverbs have been jumping into my head during certain situations…and they were not the “highlighted” ones
Great stuff guys…
I’m pretty bad to be more excited about a book about Christianity or even a book about the Bible than I am the Bible. I’ve got the Bible on my Blackberry, but I’ll read Twitter first. I’ll check on the Green Bay Packers first. I’ll surf to nascar.com first.
I genuinely love the Bible, but I don’t want to respond to it out of legalism. I don’t want to say that I love it just to keep the legalists off my back. I want to want to read it. I want to really love it.
That’s hard, because it cuts to the bone and doesn’t leave much wiggle room.
Some of it, to be honest, doesn’t appeal to my sense of reading. It’s not fun.
I certainly agree with Bernard on this one. some of the Bible is just not fun. I am bogged down right now in Exodus and know Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy will be the same as will some other parts of it. That is why I like the OneYearBible approach. Least I still get NT, Psalms & Proverbs. I also appreciate B’s honesty.
Michael: for years I have tried to read the book of Proverbs at least every other month. One year as I read I took colored pens (not bleed through kind) and committed to finding a different verse each time. I was rewarding. Also takes the “boredom” out of I have read this before. 6x through in a year…6 new verses each chapter.
I have definatley bogged down at times. I too appreciate Bernards honesty. As a matter of fact I appreciate everyone’s honesty and thoughts. I am thankful for the conversation and how it helps shapren and develop all of us.
Sometimes I tussle with the question of why we attach almost a legalistic insistence to reading every word of the Bible. By no means do I feel that any of it is unimportant, but I think that different parts are important for different reasons and in different ways. The story in Exodus is hugely important, and there may be times that God speaks to us through the genealogies, but I don’t think we’re violating the Scriptures if we speed read or skim the parts that simply don’t flow in a way that our mind follows. It is all profitable, but often it’s profitable in a large context of studying, and just “reading every word” isn’t necessarily the most profitable idea.
In other words, am I reading it to hear what God is saying, or am I just reading it to avoid the guilt of saying, “No, I’ve never read every last word of that.”
I Love that Bernard! The last paragraph is powerful – “In other words, am I reading it to hear what God is saying, or am I just reading it to avoid the guilt of saying, “No, I’ve never read every last word of that.””
Thanks for sharing that!
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