Bible reading revisited

How are you doing with your Bible reading this year?

Like all New Years resolutions, we tend to fade out come February! Take heart, you (and I) are not alone in this! Keep at it; you will reap the benefits if you faint not (AV). Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (ESV)

My wife, God bless her, is listening her way through the Bible. Because she drives such distances for her work, I think this is working out better for her than just reading, though she is doing some reading of the New Testament too. Because she is listening so much, I think she is actually ahead of me in this endeavor.

I have an English Standard Bible, an update of the much maligned Revised Standard Version, which I am marking up as I read it. I hope this Bible will go to one of my grandchildren someday, should we be blessed with grandchildren. The ESV is the translation that John Piper says he hopes will become the accepted and generally used translation in homes and churches in the English speaking world.

I have seen plans that say that if we will just spend 30-45 minutes a day reading our Bibles that we could actually get all the way through it in about a month? Any takers? I thought not. Still, that should challenge us to spend at least a minimum of time with God in Bible reading, so He can speak to our hearts directly from His word. How else can we possibly know the voice of God if we never listen (as I speak, my TV is turned off)?

How about throwing in some Bible memorization to boot? I have some verses memorized, but I can do more; I just know I can. To help you with this, the Navigators have a Bible Memory kit with perforated cards that have keys verses on them, and a card pack to keep them in. They are available from Christian Book Distributor’s website www.Christianbook.com

I recommend it! I have it, and I use it.

No Shibboleth

The Problem with Mere Christianity

These evangelicals hit one roadblock that arises when "mere Christianity" severs our ties to theological traditions. At its best, mere Christianity can be summed up by Augustine's proverb: "In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity."

I subscribe to the magazine Christianity Today, and I get their articles in ChristianityToday.com emails daily. Most recently was the above article titled The Problem with Mere Christianity. The tile is an obvious take off from Clive Staples Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. The idea is that we cannot give up doctrines because there is controversy about them. Lewis' book, in contrast, developed a very thorough doctrine of God. The idea of the article is that Christianity cannot be reduced to some Mere (read, lesser or reduced) Christianity, cheap grace; a shibboleth.

In the first season of the television show The West Wing, there was an episode entitled Shibboleth. In the show, there was a group of Chinese Christians that had made it to the New World as illegal immigrants, and who were looking for sanctuary because of religious persecution in their homeland. President Josiah Bartlett calls in one of the groups’ leaders to question him about why they are really in America, suspecting that they are not true Christians but merely feigning faith.

Bartlett asks the man about their religious practices, how do they worship? “We hear sermons, we read the Bible, we say the Lord’s Prayer, we sing hymns, we pray,” was his answer. But he senses that President Bartlett is looking for more, for proof positive of his faith; he says “Mr. President, there is no shibboleth.” To this, President Bartlett replies, "You just said the magic word."

Judges 12:6
then they would say to him, "Say now, 'Shibboleth.'" But he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it correctly.

I was blown away when I heard that. His doctrine was exactly correct, no shibboleth, no magic words to make one a Christian. President Bartlett was wrong, there are no magic Christian words.

In Islam, the "shibboleth" is:

“There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his Prophet.”

In Judaism, the "shibboleth" is Deuteronomy 6:4-5 --

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

But in Christianity there is no shibboleth, no magic words.

Ephesians 2:8-9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Romans 10:9-10
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

If there were a Christian shibboleth, maybe it would be Luke 18:13

"But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'"

The problem is that one can say the words and never be converted, never really changed from the inside by God. These are the ones called hypocrites by people in and outside the church. They are still lost in their sins. Confession does not equal repentance.

Proverbs 28:13

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 2:4

The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

John 14:15

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Another Missive

The above link is for Tony Dungy's presentation to the Athletes In Action Superbowl breakfast from 2006. There you will hear Coach Dungy give his personal testamony. See below for the second video that completes the testimony.

Sorry, but you will need a high-speed connection to view the videos.

They only take a few minutes, less than 20 minutes I think. These videos are worth the time to watch, and to show to high school age youth.

Below is the second in the series of two.

Then the last video is Coach Lovie Smith giving his (shorter) testimony of faith. All three are worth your time!

Get a young person to watch these with you. You will both be blessed by these.

Reading the Bible

Each year we try to challenge our church members to read through the Bible. We give them Bible reading plans from Discipleship Journal to choose from; one is just the New Testament, another begins in Genesis and ends with Revelation, and another spreads the reading across four sections of the Bible at the same time.

The first time I read through the Bible was circa 1975. I mean, I had read enough of the Bible to “figure” that I had read all of it before, but not systematically. I was working on a Service Call Desk, every third night, awake all night I had lots of time to read after midnight. One of the TV programs that came on one night was a Billy Graham Crusade, with an offer for a free copy of Kenneth Taylor’s Living Bible. All you had to do was to write for one, and the BGEA would send it to you (they still do this with books, their offers are on their website www.bgea.org). So, I sent in for a copy of this new version of the Bible.

When I got my copy, I took it to work with me and I began reading. I would put a dot by the chapter numbers as I read that chapter. At first I just read a chapter or two. Then I branched out and I read from different portions across the genres of the Bible: Law, Poetry, History, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, Gospels & Acts, Epistles, and Apocalyptic. As the astute bible students will know, some of these overlap. Some of the Prophets overlap with Revelation, e.g. I was soon reading ten chapters at a setting. Then I found that I could not read enough at a setting, and I was reading many chapters at a time. I soon found that I was re-reading chapters that I had read before; the chapter dots, you know.

Then I found that some of the things I was reading in Matthew 24 corresponded with what I was reading in Revelation and Ezekiel and Daniel. Jesus and Paul quoted a LOT from the Psalms.

This year, we again challenged our church to read through the Bible. We gave them the same reading plans as before. As happened in years before, almost all of the copies were take home by the people. I suppose they are reading from them.

As part of my Bible reading plan, I found my NASB on CDs set. Then I ripped the NT to the hard drive on my laptop so I can listen to them anywhere without lugging the two pound pack of CDs in addition to my laptop. The CDs are fine if one listens to them while driving, but one more thing to take in/out like luggage is problematic. I am now listening to the Bible, even as I write. I am preaching a sermon series from the Gospel of Mark, and so I am listening to Mark on my laptop!

How are you “reading” the Bible? Which translation are you using? I know of some websites that will “read” the Bible to you on-line (a highspeed connection strongly recommended), one is www.blueletterbible.com. Christian Book Distributors has a good selection of Bibles on CD collections, if you want something like this. Will you take the challenge? Will you read the Bible through?