One New Year’s challenge that I always look forward to is reading through the Bible beginning January first. Honestly, I don’t always get the whole text read in a year. Sometimes interruptions get in the way. On other occasions, I find God grabbing my attention to stop and meditate on one single verse in the day’s reading instead of pressing on with the rest of the text.
But I’ve found that a daily practice of systematically working through the Bible has been just as important spiritually as eating a healthy diet is for the physical. The objective is simply coming before the life-changing Word of God regularly and allowing HIM to change us.
In my vocation, it’s easy to check out and look at the Bible as a textbook. By this, I mean merely studying the content for sermon preparation, teaching, and the like. But, unfortunately, that’s probably not too far off for many of us. In other words, it’s easy to take it for granted. Yet somehow, we know there’s something different to this book. The Bible is still the number one selling book of all time. It is both mysterious and rational. It is known to change even the hardest of hearts and bring purpose, clarity, and hope for those honestly seeking answers.
I know; some have argued against or wondered about the validity of the Bible. On the surface, that is a good question. To that, I have written in places such as here on the reliability of the text. So, yes, there are indeed rational reasons to trust the Bible and learn from it today for those honestly seeking truth.
Therefore, the challenge that I’m passing along to you is to pick up the Old Book in the New Year and dive in. Don’t worry if you miss a day or can only grab a few verses on another. Just pick it up again the next day at the scheduled reading spot. No, you may not end up having read every single word of the text in 2022. But if you are not at least setting a road map, you’ll never travel anywhere. It’s not about legalism anyway. The purpose is not more religious points scored with God but instead preparing the heart for Him to speak into your life and the lives of His people, the church.
I have often remembered a quote attributed to the 19th century English preacher, Charles Spurgeon, who supposedly said, “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.” I like that regardless of who said it. It conveys that the Word of God is powerful and will indeed transform your life today. There are several good online plans to read the Bible through in a year. This is the one that I use and here are other options.
As for me going into 2022, I’m in. What about you?
Tonight we will take on part II of our discussion over Atheism verses Theism. I’m excited to finally sit down with my friend Robert Tippett as we interview Stan Stephen about his journey from growing up with a general Theistic world view, moving into atheism, and then back to God. Stan is an incredibly intelligent man with a career in engineering. His journey back to God simply began with rationalistic thinking and discovering the fallacies in many of the modern atheistic arguments. So set your schedule now to meet us at 8p Central for the live webcast and feel free to send in questions if you are viewing through Google +.
The Bible? Our live webcast this Sunday is going to be GREAT. I’ve been looking forward to this episode from the start as it will address the very real and practical question of the authenticity of the Bible. Can we trust the Bible? Isn’t it just another book written by men a long time ago? Does it have relevance for today? What are the facts and the fallacies? What are the myths and the evidences? These and many other questions will be asked and addressed this Sunday night at 8p central and we’d love to have you stop by. If you have a Google + account you can participate in Q&A with other viewers on the Google + Sunday Night Discussions page. So grab a friend and come and see!
In this week’s show we will look at world views and consider how they influence our beliefs, thinking, and actions. We will ask how we arrive at our understanding of the world and what ramifications accompany those paradigms. If you have a Google + account you can also log into our SND page and send in questions. So grab a friend and come and see. Look forward to seeing you live at 8p central tonight.
I never really liked the title of the NPR program “All Things Considered.” Maybe it’s because the title somehow just felt shallow. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like “all things considered” really means “all things that Robert Siegel and the producers want to consider.” Like many NPR programs, there seems to be a bent to purposefully stay away from and shun any position which has even an inkling of a serious Christian worldview. That is unless the point is to attack such a paradigm. Yet I wonder; what would the fabric of any culture actually look like where the vast majority of people held Christ as King and the Bible as authoritative? What could theoretically happen when an authentic Christian Worldview was actually played out in a society?
Yes, I know that many in our present American and Western cultures would flee from such an idea like an OU fan trying to get out of Memorial Stadium in Austin right after the Longhorns won. Some would even fight such a proposition with a special antagonism. It reminds me of the View episode back in 2006 when Rosie O’Donnell postulated to Elisabeth Hasselbeck that “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as Radical Islam.” (more…)
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