What is the Bible for?

Date
February 21, 2018
Author
david
Category
Uncategorized

What is the Bible for?

It really is a good question. And there’s more than one right answer. The Bible tells us about God and what He demands. It tells us who we are, why we are here, where we are from, and where we are going. Most importantly it tells us about our sin and forgiveness, about Christ and the cross, and how we are lost and can be found. Those are all reasons God gave us the Bible, but I want to briefly focus on another. Paul wrote to Timothy,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

In this passage Paul explains the word of God is profitable in order to make Christians complete, mature and equipped for every good work. The Bible has been given to us in order to make us holy. God uses His Word to sanctify us, to make us more like Jesus. If that’s what you’re after then, like Psalm 19 describes, you will see the Bible as more valuable than gold, and sweeter than honey. We need to be saturated in the Scripture. We need to be a people of The Book. I wholeheartedly agree with this quote from Kevin DeYoung:

No one makes it in sports without working out. No one succeeds in music without lots of practice. No one makes it very far in the school of holiness without hours and days and years in the Word of God. The Bible trains us in righteousness! You and I simply will not mature as quickly, minister as effectively, or live as gloriously without immersing yourself in the Scriptures. There is no shortcut. We need the Word. We can never outgrow the Bible because it always means to make us grow.

I distinctly remember a godly man, who I greatly respect, telling me the secret to spiritual growth. He said, “Read the whole Bible. Do it over and over again. Read it every year.” To be honest I was a little disappointed with his recommendation. I mean really, could simply reading the Bible every year make that big of a difference. I took his advice, I began reading through the Bible each year and despite my pessimism I saw God work powerfully in my marriage, my home, my witness, my giving, my repenting, my trusting in Christ. In the Scripture, I met with God and He used His Word to transform me. Through this simple discipline of reading His Word we connect with God and become more and more like Him.

Begin praying and preparing your hearts now to be in the Word more this year than ever before in your lives. As a church let’s read through the Bible together this year. I believe with all my heart there is nothing more valuable we can do together as the family of God in Christ than “Get in the Word and Stay There!” Three to four chapters a day, 20 minutes a day, that’s doable for every one of us!
Here is a plan you can use. Click here for the PDF.

There are four different places in the Bible where you read every day. By reading these four different places, you complete the entire Bible in one year. Two of those places are in the New Testament, two of them are in the Old Testament.

This plan only schedules 25 days each month for Bible reading. Which means that at the end of every month, there are five or six days with no assignments. This plan gives you a gracious five or six days at the end of every month to catch up if you’ve fallen behind.