| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Writing and reading” Our Bible verse for today: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (CSB) Our thought for today: “The Bible is most important” The earliest evidence we have of any form of written communication comes from approximately 3200 B.C. Archeologists have discovered tablets from ancient Mesopotamia and Persia containing cuneiform inscriptions. So, humans have been communicating in writing for at least 5000 years, but probably longer than that. Yesterday I quoted Exodus 31:18 where we read of God inscribing the Ten Commandments on stone tablets and giving them to Moses. That was the first instance of God putting Scripture into writing for us, and it occurred somewhere around 1500 B.C. Without question, the most important form of written communication there has ever been is the Bible. As Paul told us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (above), the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Every word of the original manuscripts came from the mind and heart of God. He used human authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as His instruments to record that communication, but it comes to us directly from Him. The Bible is complete, and in it, God tells us everything He wants us to know about Himself and His ways. He also tells us what He expects of us and how He wants us to live, as well as about our future in heaven. Obviously, there’s much more that could be known about all those things, and someday in heaven we will know all there is to know, but in the Bible God has given us all the information He wants us to have at this time. And it’s a lot. You can be a diligent student of the Bible your entire life and there will always be something new to learn. So, why don’t more Christians read the Bible? Since it is God speaking directly to us, you would think a professing Christian would be fascinated with the Bible and wouldn’t be able to get enough of it. But no, that’s not how it is. A recent study by the LifeWay research department (the research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention), revealed that among Christians of all denominations fewer than one-third have ever read the entire Bible even once. Eighty percent admit that the only time they even hear the Bible read is in church. Now, that’s true of Christians across all denominations. Those percentages are higher and better when they look at just evangelical Christians (and that’s encouraging to this Southern Baptist pastor’s heart), but the percentage is still low. Far too many professing Christians either never read the Bible, or only read it sporadically and not in a deep way. This means that Biblical literacy in the USA is low – and declining. And that’s a problem for the Church. A serious problem. If you don’t know the Bible well, then you don’t know God very well. And if you don’t know God very well, you’re probably not going to obey Him, and you won’t be a very good follower of Jesus. Of all the things you could read, the Bible is most important. It’s the written Word of God and it has been given to us by Him as a gift. We’ll think more about this tomorrow. God bless, Pastor Jim |
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