Encouragement to Read Through the Bible

It is with a certain degree of embarrassment I confess I have not yet read through the entire Bible in a systematic way. I am very familiar with the NT, and have probably read though that part many many times; but the OT, especially the prophets were only cherry-picked though, visiting the Messianic Passages – certainly not “read though” in any organized way.

Well, this year, I have finally started a read-through-the-Bible program – and it’s become quite a joy! I started January 8th, and I am currently at Jeremiah chapter 51 at the time of this article.

What this experience has done for me so far:

1. Encouraged me, in that I better understand the patience of God in working with humanity, and with me personally in my spiritual walk with God.
2. Encouraged me, in that I better understand the bent of the whole human race to rebel against God’s standards, even among God’s people!
3. Encouraged me, in that I better understand the error of certain arguments against Christianity due to:
   1. That-Angry-God-of-the-OT, who is out to punish mankind, who is so unfair to people because of His actions of x, y, and z in the Old Testament …
   2. These arguments against God do not take into consideration the vile practices of those surrounding civilizations – people who present these kinds of arguments against Christianity do not understand the Wisdom of God. I.e. How much better the chances are that a person will come to know the Lord personally because the world is free of certain influences of vile practices that had become “common practice” and “socialized” into the thoughts of mankind.
4. Encouraged me, in that I see how God has a plan for the world, and has interfered with the natural height of what sin could be today. Although we do have sin today, we do not have base, false ideologies rooted in ancient deities of Baal, Ashtoreth (or at lease we have a very strong challenge to those false ideas if they do exist somewhere today, solely due to God and His activity among mankind in the OT) – and I better understand how God’s chosen people Israel, have been cured from these influences today. It took a while, but God has broken and eradicated this particular base ideology in Israel.

A Note about Education and Reading the Bible

I do believe that people should be “educated” – I believe that this is a desire of God for each person, to the best of his ability and situation. Education should consist of the basics – the ability to read and write; to be able to perform basic math to support building projects or handle money; to learn history and mistakes from the past for the benefit of not repeating errors, shaping politics, establishing better laws, etc …. To learn a “specialized skill set” for a chose career path in order to support one’s self in society – e.g a medial education for nurses and doctors or computer programming, counseling etc …

But, I also believe that no one is properly “educated” if they have never read the Bible – and pondered its message, on a regular bases – reviewing the wisdom, and instructions given by God in His Holy Word. Think on this a few minutes, and see if that doesn’t make sense. Any person who has been though a formal education of any type should have a basic understanding of the Bible. If you think about it, this is a fundamental responsibility associated with what it means to be human. (Okay, just my two cents worth.)

I would strongly encourage anyone that I love – that I care about – with this challenge:  Please, don’t be a person who has lived your life of x years who has never read the Bible. 

Just don’t be that person.  

Make this a priority.  Make this a paramount goal.  Make this a necessity.  Figure out how to not be distracted with entertainment and the cares of life to read though the Bible on a regular basis.  This is highly important. Make your mind up, commit yourself, and do this because you understand how important it is.

======

Some advice in setting this into practice:

1. Take advantage of technology. Focus may be somewhat required for using Audio Playback, but it is a wonderful way to go though the Bible. I admit that there were times that my mind wondered while the passages were read. No problem. Hit STOP. Take another sip of coffee, rewind, and gather focus again, then Hit PLAY. And you will also experience the opposite problem, where you find a passage that is so beautiful that you just want to play them over and over again. (Solomon’s Dedication Prayer of the Temple was one such passage … incredible encouragement of forgiveness of sins and prayer!)
2. Don’t expect to become an expert on the history of all the kings mentioned, and detailed locations – it’s enough on a first pass to get the overall gist of the message as opposed to knowing all the ins and outs that a scholar would know. Be satisfied with just “knowing-all-I-can-know” on a first pass. This is a reasonable expectation and will keep you encouraged.
3. Do some thinking on where this will fit into a daily routine. For me, this has been a very natural program for me in the car on my M-F daily trips to and from work. I have looked forward to my commutes, can’t wait to focus on the Word of God during these times. It has become very special to me. I also believe my mind is sharpest during the morning time, especially with caffeine that accompanies coffee.
4. Finally, let me encourage anyone with this: It really isn’t all that hard! My trips to and from work are only a little over 30 mins per day. I have even taken a few breaks to go though a few other audio books for a week or two before returning to daily audio in the Bible – yet still, I will finish in less than 1/2 a year – comfortably. In fact, I’m even thinking about going though the Bible twice this year with a fresh start in July. At least I will not pass from death into heaven and have to say that I was too busy with mundane activities (like bowling, chess, programming, keeping up with technology iPhone trends, etc ..) to read through God’s Word.