Priority of the Word
I have seen several beautiful Bibles in my life. Laurie and I once saw a Gutenberg Bible in a museum. Printed in the 1400s, Gutenberg's Bible was the first mass produced book printed with movable type. It made God's Word available to many more people than ever before, and, knowing its place in church history, we both got a little emotional seeing it. We've also seen gloriously illuminated Bibles painstakingly hand-decorated by biblical scholars. Today you can find Bibles bound in excellent leathers, sumptuously illustrated, in all sizes.
But to me, as an elder in the church, the most beautiful Bibles are the ones that have been worn out. I love to see a Bible that has had countless hours of use by a saint. There is nothing so beautiful as what the word does in the life of a saint, and that work can be accomplished just as effectively with the humblest paperback edition.
In Psalm 119, the psalmist says “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (v 11), and later “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v 105).
The Holy Spirit has preserved in our Bible everything we need to know about God, our relationship to God, and the good news of the Gospel. The Bible is where we learn that He sent His Son to die for our sins and be raised from the dead, conquering death so that we who believe in Him will have eternal life with Him. Let me encourage you with a few reasons why you need to be in God's word daily.
1. There is no better news than what I just told you! God's glory, revealed in its fullness in the Gospel, is what our existence is all about. There is nothing you will ever hear that will be as satisfying, and certainly nothing as important.
2. To know the scriptures is to know what God wants us to know and what He wants us to do.
3. We have an embarrassment of riches in our access to the Word! We have multiple excellent translations from godly people who want to get the Word to as many people as possible. Do you know how many saints in the past (and even in the present) have longed for access to the Scriptures? People have prayed (and are praying) desperately to be able to read the Word for themselves. The Bible has been (and in some places still is) forbidden, burned, and suppressed by dark regimes while believers in those places thirsted for the Word. I have an app on my phone right next to me that will give me dozens of versions. At the press a button, the guy who played Poirot on TV will read scripture aloud to me. With all of this access, what a shame it is if we don't use it! If you're reading this here at Living Hope Fellowship and don't have ready access to a Bible, let us know. It would be a joy for us to get one for you.
4. We have a job to do. Christ commissioned us to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We need to know what God says before we can tell people. And we need to know what it says accurately for ourselves, because there is an Enemy out there who will try to twist God's word into falsehoods.
5. I guarantee you that you will find, when you're constantly in the Word, that what you are reading consistently speaks to what you're currently going through. That's the Holy Spirit at work.
Friend, with so many screaming voices vying for our attention every day, with so much panic-mongering and division in the public discourse, what a balm it is to hear the story and teaching of God who loves us. I urge you to go to it each day. Start each day with it. It will change you for good.
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 Tim. 3:16-17). Let's get equipped for the good work that is before us. Let's be a people who are always turning to the Lord in His word and in prayer. In doing so, we will be a people whose lives are about glorifying God. That is what I long for and what I want for you. I want you to have the hope that comes through the encouragement of the Scriptures. If you're not already, make today the day when you begin to open your Bible and read from it every day for the rest of your life. Start in Genesis and, when you finish the whole book, start back in Genesis again. Your Christian walk will never be the same.
