Taking God at His Word

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.(Psalm 119: 89 – 91)

How many of you establish that a public vehicle is insured before boarding it? How many ensure that it has a spare wheel? How many make sure that the driver is licensed before allowing him to carry you?

How many will look for the reporter before reading a newspaper to ensure that you share values? Whoever wanted to verify the source before watching the news?

Why then do we have issues believing what God says about the Bible? Why do we look for reasons not to read the Bible yet are not ashamed to say that we love its author? Why don’t we read the Bible as thoroughly and consistently as we read books and newspapers?

Ever heard people praying for journey mercies? You will hear them confessing that they are travelling with gadgets made by the hands of men (meaning unreliably) and therefore pleading for God’s hand which is sure protection.

Yet we still trust those gadgets more than the God we are asking to override their undependability.

What do I mean?

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

That command (yes, command) directly implies a continuous and consistent reading of the book so that our minds and hearts are saturated with it. Then we will naturally be vomiting it as our overflow (excuse my unsavory language).

It does not mean reading a verse here and a chapter there when you have some free time.

And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. (Deuteronomy 32: 46, 47)

God’s word is life. Yet we trust other things than we trust that word enough to read it.

Or maybe we fear it. We know just about enough about God to realize that knowing His word will open us up to His control. In other words, we fear having God running our affairs. But we do not want to confess, even acknowledge that.

Let me give another analogy.

Do you require a breakdown of the nutritional content when you are offered food at a restaurant? Do you ask how many vitamins, fiber, fat etc. the food contains? I need 200 mg of starch, 50 g of cholesterol, 100 g of fiber…

Why then must you break down the Bible before you read it?

I need a verse to handle depression. I need a verse when under pressure. I need a verse to give me psych before tackling an assignment. I need a verse when my boss is on my case.

Is the Bible an apothecary?

Why do we use illogical logic when the Bible is the subject? Why do we use standards that would otherwise hold no water when dealing with God’s word?

I don’t know how many believers know that the Bible is a unit and not fragments. And many preachers are not any better as they treat the Bible so. What with the customized messages they preach to keep their members as contributing members of their kiosk, sorry, church?

Do you realize that Deuteronomy was recited on one day? Just read it and you will realize so.

It simply means that it really should be read in one sitting since that is the way it was spoken.

And many other books are of that nature. They were written to be read at one sitting.

That was the reason the Sabbaths were for the reading of the scriptures. Even the three annual festivals were for the same purpose.

During Josiah’s time, ALL the words were read from the Bible that had been retrieved from the temple, many times. In other words, they read through the whole book every time they met.

During Ezra’s time, we see them dedicating from morning till noon every day ONLY for the reading of the scriptures. And it was not once a week or during a festival. It was daily for several weeks.

Unlike today, preachers in the Bible quoted the Bible extensively. The preacher used his words to string Bible passages together not like today’s preachers that use a verse as punctuation.

Read Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. Or Stephen’s sermon before he was stoned.

It is no wonder those messages had to have a response.

You see God watches over His word to fulfill it, not the preacher’s creativity.

I believe the same applies with social media posts. There are posts that are liked and others that are dreaded. And I dare say it is the place of the word that determines it. Posts that are saturated with God’s word are unpopular as they hold one to account. Doses of ‘encouragement’ and motivation are enjoyable to the flesh and therefore garner adequate likes. You see, they do not challenge people to God’s standard.

But you realize that we can only vomit what we have ingested. If we take in the scriptures as tablets, there is very little actual scripture coming out of our mouths, making us really struggle to speak wholesome doctrine.

Will we believe God enough to read His word in sizeable chunks consistently?

Why do we read the whole newspaper, magazine or novel yet need a lot of plodding to read four chapters of the Bible daily yet we know that reading that will make us finish reading through the Bible in ten months? Why is it so difficult to read a Bible book at one sitting?

Or are we scared of the transformation that will occur when the Bible starts being a sizeable part of what will be coming from our mouths?

Let me remind you that we still offer reading plans to help the beginner to read through the Bible in one year.