How Do You Read It?

Luke 10:25-26
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”  

      As a pastor, the thing that I find so disheartening in today's churches is the fact that a lot of people do not read their bible on a daily basis.  Read this clip from the Baptist Press on this issue:

Standing before nearly 700 attendees at  "Read the Bible for Life" conference, George Guthrie rattled off a series of statistics:

-- 25 million copies of the Bible are sold in the United States annually.

-- Nine out of 10 homes in the U.S. have a Bible.

-- More than 400 million copies of all or part of the Bible are distributed through Bible societies each year.

Despite what would appear to be a Scripture saturation of biblical proportions, the "No. 1 predictor of spiritual maturity [according to a study by LifeWay Research] is reading the Bible on a daily basis [but] only 16 percent of churchgoers read the Bible daily and 25 percent of churchgoers don't read the Bible at all," Guthrie said at the April 15-16 conference at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.

"This means that more than 50 percent of people who come through the doors of our churches on a regular basis only read their Bibles occasionally, perhaps one or two times per month, if at all," Guthrie said. "Even more sobering, only 37 percent of those who attend church regularly say that reading and studying the Bible has made a significant difference in the way they live their lives. Only 37 percent." (Read the whole article http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=35125)

     In this passage found in Luke 10 we see Jesus being tested by the religious leaders with a question and Jesus answered with a question, "How do you read it?" I would ask a question today, "How OFTEN do you read it." There is such a wealth of information, guidance, direction, and instruction in the bible. The bible can assist us in living a life that is healthy, productive, and successful. Why would we not want to read it? But for some reason believers today find reading the bible low on their daily priority list.

     My encouragement for you today is, READ YOUR BIBLE! Don't just read it to put your time in so you can say you did. Read it purposefully! Read it with the intent of hearing from God. Read it with a passion to understand God more. Read it with a desire to walk away from it feeling equip to face whatever the day may bring. Finally, JUST READ IT! (Nike Slogan)