BIBLE-READING
Oftentimes in
reading (the Bible), every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony
between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed
often to see so much light exhibited in every sentence, and such refreshing
food communicated, that I could not get along in reading; often dwelling long
on one sentence, to see the wonders contained in it; yet almost every sentence
seemed to be full of wonders.
Jonathan Edwards
Personal Narrative, Selections.
Resolved, to
study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may
find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
Resolution Number 28.
God has
condescended to become an author, and yet people will not read his writings.
There are very few that ever gave this Book of God, the grand charter of
salvation, one fair reading through.
Christian History, Issue 38.
The more you
read the Bible; and the more you meditate on it, the more you will be
astonished with it.
If you find a
professing Christian indifferent to his Bible, you may be sure that the very
dust upon its cover will rise up in judgment against him.
I venture to
say that the bulk of Christians spend more time in reading the newspaper than
they do reading the Word of God.
Here then, is
the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not
so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull
and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence
or a lack of passion. Our problem is
that we are lazy.
Knowing Scripture, Copyright (c) 1977
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with permission
of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com.
By
definition, the living Word is dynamic, not static. Just as John described
Jesus as a living…human organism whom people could touch and feel, the Word of
life continues to be fully alive among us through the presence of the Holy
Spirit. If we believe anything less, we
make Jesus Christ an artifact of history and his Word a static truth of limited
contemporary value. Neither is true. For those who believe, the living presence
of Jesus Christ and the relevance of his Word is as
real today as when he walked and talked on earth. Eternal, final, alive, and
relevant- these adjectives describe the living Word.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p. 17, Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
Christians
need no other reason to be avid readers of the Word of God. Realizing that Scripture is
"God-breathed" is motivation enough. Immediately, we see a connection
between the living Word and the written Word. Just as Jesus Christ the living
Word is an ever present and dynamic reality, the written Word is equally alive
and active through the mind of the Holy Spirit. Every time we open the
Scriptures, we should expect a personal encounter with the God-breathed Spirit
of the living Word. This is reading at its very best. When the mind and spirit
of a biblical author interact in vibrant dialogue with the mind and spirit of a
reader, the highest purpose of the inspired Word is fulfilled. We should soar
every time we read the Word of God.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p.
18-19, Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
If we slight
the reading of the God-breathed Word, the Holy Spirit is handicapped with dull
tools for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in right doing. Why
then should we be surprised that we fall short of godly character, feel
spiritually incompetent in Christian witness, and fail at good works? The loop
of learning takes us back to the basics. If we want the qualities associated
with spiritual maturity, we must be avid readers of the God-breathed Word and serious
students of Scripture.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p.
52, Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
Unless we
read the Word of God, we cannot be instructed by the Spirit, and unless we are
instructed by the Spirit, we cannot become godly and effective servants. To put
it another way, loving the Word, learning from the Word, and living out the
Word are interlocked in God's plan for our spiritual growth.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p.
46, Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
The great cause of neglecting the Scriptures is not want of time,
but want of heart, some idol taking the place of Christ.
As you read, pause
frequently to meditate on the meaning of what you are reading. Absorb the Word
into your system by dwelling on it, pondering it, going over it again and again
in your mind, considering it from many different angles, until it becomes part
of you.
A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 165.
In the first
years of George Mueller’s Christian life, he spent more time reading the works
of men than the Scriptures. Up until the day of his conversion he could not
even recall reading one chapter of the Book of books. However, in the
ninety-second year of his life he told his biographer that for every page he
had read in any other book he was sure that he had proportionately read ten
pages of the Bible. During the last twenty years of his life he read through
the Scripture four or five times annually. In studying Mueller’s life I have
discovered that his devotion and delight in God’s Word was the secret to his
faith and life of prayer.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 79.
God is the author
of the Bible, and only the truth it contains will lead people to true
happiness. A Christian should read this precious Book every day with earnest
prayer and meditation. But like many believers, I preferred to read the works
of uninspired men rather than the oracles of the living God. Consequently, I
remained a spiritual baby both in knowledge and grace.
George
Muller
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 21.
All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with
permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian
bookstores everywhere.
I saw more
clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought
to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to
be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might
glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my
inner man may be nourished… I saw that the most important thing I had to do was
to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it.
Now what is
food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not
the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our
minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read,
pondering it over and applying it to our hearts.
Spiritual Secrets of George Muller.
Do you
realize that tape-recorded readings of the Bible have proven that you can read
through the entire Book in seventy-one hours? The average person in the United
States watches that much television in less than two weeks. In no more than
fifteen minutes a day you can read through the Bible in less than a year’s
time.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 33. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved. For more
information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Read the
Scripture, not only as a history, but as a love-letter sent to you from God.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 35.
The reason we
come away so cold from reading the word is, because we do not warm ourselves at
the fire of meditation.
Puritan Sermons, reprint, Richard Owens Roberts, 1981, v. 2, p. 62.
Remember that
it is not hasty reading, but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths,
that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It
is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but
her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he
that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove to be
the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.
Merely
reading the Bible is no use at all without we study it thoroughly, and hunt it
through, as it were, for some great truth.
D.L Moody
Amidst the
flood of dangerous reading, I plead for my Master's book; I call upon you not
to forget the book of the soul. Do not let newspapers, novels, and romances be
read, while the prophets and Apostles be despised. Do
not let the exciting and sensual swallow up your attention, while the edifying
and the sanctifying can find no place in your mind.
Thoughts for Young Men.
Bible reading
enables us…to enjoy communion with God as He speaks to us from His word,
encouraging us, instructing us, and revealing Himself to us.
The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p.
39, www.navpress.com. Used by Permission.
Usually
we think of methods of intake as falling into four categories – hearing the Word taught by our pastors
and teachers (Jeremiah 3:15), reading
the Bible ourselves (Deuteronomy 17:19), studying
the Scriptures intently (Proverbs 2:1-5), and memorizing key passages (Psalm 119:11). All of these methods are
needed for a balanced intake of the Word… [But] we must do more than hear,
read, study, or memorize Scripture. We must [also] meditate on it (Joshua 1:8).
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, © 1996, p. 99. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
A verse must
be read often, and re-read and read again before the wondrous message of love
and power that God has put into begins to appear. Words must be turned over and
over in the mind before their full force and beauty takes possession of us. One
must look a long time at the great masterpieces of art to appreciate their
beauty and understand their meaning, and so one must look a long time at the
great verses of the Bible to appreciate their beauty and understand their
meaning.
Scripture is
like a working museum of which the Spirit is the Curator, showing us around and
explaining the wonders of the mind of the Maker. In this museum we are taken
behind the scenes to learn from God Himself. In growing to know God, therefore,
there is no substitute for the discipline of Bible study and Scripture reading
and meditation. We cannot bypass the handbook God has given to us and then
expect that we can know Him in our own way. The only god we can know in our own
way is a god that we make in our own image.
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 8, by permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.