I think I’m going to stop reading the Bible, I mean, after all, I’ve been reading it for almost four decades now, and I’m fairly sure that I understand it well enough. I’ve hidden His Word in my heart, I believe I’m approved, I can divide it well enough to get by. I’ll just read books written by men who expounded on the Scriptures, the wisdom is there, and then I can write these letters to you in accordance to what they have written and their interpretations.
Besides, that will save me some time to attend to some other things I’ve been wanting to get to.
“But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?” (Psalm 50:16)
How do you think that would work out for me? Know anyone like that?
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
I would put that light out and not be able to find my way, wouldn’t I?
It takes two things to read the Word of God, effort and desire. Time is not in the equation, you can make the time, time is never a viable excuse. You could say you love Him and that is why you read His truths, but even then, it would require effort on your part, and that love would also fall under the category of desire.
Were you aware that when questions were put in front of Evangelical pastors of what they desired most from their congregations that the preeminent answer was that they would read their Bibles more?
You might be amazed at how little about the Scriptures most people who claim to be saved know. Secondhand information, knowledge from other resources, but not directly from His Word.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” (Hosea 4:6a)
Were you also aware that almost every women’s Bible study’s do not use the Scriptures, but books written by people? Now, I’m not saying that the Scriptures are all you should read, men of God have been used by the Holy Spirit to expound upon the truth of the Almighty for thousands of years, but there is a subtle trap in such things.
The thoughts of men are sometimes more easily digested than the words of God, but they should be used as an addendum at best, and always with great caution.
Whenever I start a new book, I always try to remember to ask the Lord to reveal to me the truths within it, and to make me forget that which is unprofitable for me, and those I speak to.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2nd Tim. 2:15)
It always amazes me when I meet someone who professes to know the Lord who knows so little about His words, they remind me of Hebrews 5:12.
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
You can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord if you read books written by God-fearing men than time spent in His Holy Word, but that growth will be infinitesimally slow, and you will be in grave danger of missing truth or being deceived by falsehoods. Thousands of religious organizations with listeners sitting in the pews attest to this truth.
You do not find the time to study the Scriptures, you make the time, the effort you place upon this reveals the desires of your heart, and thereby your love for Him whom you serve. I can’t make it any simpler than that.
You cannot contemplate that which you do not know, you cannot hide in your heart that which you do not read, you cannot rightly divide unless you study and pray about His Word.
