My Daily Pause

Wow. Seven years.

From the very beginning, this site was intended to be a place to encourage Bible reading and scripture memorization. For my personal growth, it has helped me to stay accountable to my Bible study routine. For those of you who read and study along with the thoughts I post here, I appreciate your comments and sharing and requests to reuse the material.

This week is the seven year anniversary of the first post I made on this site! (March 5th) It was a simple post that took me a few hours to get just right. It simply answered the question, “Why should I read my Bible?” Since seven is thought to represent a perfect number in the Bible, I’m going to consider this a milestone year and celebrate a little.

First, a reprint of that post:

Why should I read my Bible?

1. To easily detect misuse of Scripture (Matthew 4:5-7)
2. To be ready to answer tough questions (1 Peter 3:15)
3. It has all we need to guide us (2 Timothy 3:16)
4. It fills our minds with good things (Philippians 4:8)
5. To show God you care (2 Timothy 2:15)

Second, this is the 7^th anniversary, so we need two more in the list:

6. It causes our faith to grow (Romans 10:17)
7. It is dangerous not to mature spiritually (Hebrews 6:1-7)

Third, encouragement:

Read your Bibles daily.

Study it.

Memorize some of it, and learn where to find the rest of it.

Eventually, it will become a real habit.

Eventually, you will become an expert.

Are you a daily Bible reader yet? Reply below to tell me how you do it.

Jesus feeding a crowd with 5 loaves of bread and two fish – Early 1600’s – Bernardo Strozzi

Something awesome was happening!

The people were even willing to starve to see it!

The one thing that really helps me see the details and nuances in the Scriptures has to be the number of times I have read through it in recent years. I like how every time I pass through certain events, I see new details that I have never noticed.

The feeding of the four thousand (Mark 8:1-10) makes me slow down and study it more every time I get to it. On one hand, it seems like a repeat of the earlier feeding of the five thousand, but upon closer inspection, a number of differences in the situation pop out:

• The people had been following Jesus for three days
• The disciples never offered to feed the crowd, Jesus had to initiate it
• They started with more food, but had less left over

Those three days must have been something special to keep the crowd together that long! What would it take for you to drop what you are doing and follow someone you had only heard rumors about?

The word of God is like that. The more we are exposed to it, the more we can get from it. The more we get from it, the more we want. That’s pretty much what Paul meant in Romans 10:17

I would love to have witnessed the feeding of the four thousand. I’m not a fan of camping, but I would sure have spent the three days out there with Jesus.

But we are even more fortunate than they were…

…we have the Bible.

…we can set aside time for it in the comfort of our home

… in time we can become mature Christians by studying it

Find out what made those people want to stay out there with Jesus – Start a Bible reading plan today!

Tonight a group from my church will meet for another Biblepalooza. I have written about it before, but we call it Biblepalooza to contrast our love for God’s word against the worldly activities that use up our time. These are some long sessions of Bible reading and it is an exercise just to be prepared mentally and physically to sit through it.

Diligent Bible Reading

In our quest to be at home with God one day, we’ll have plenty of opportunity to fall away – to leave the path of that quest. Just like the Jews that were denied entry to the Promised Land, our disobedience and weakness of faith can keep us out. (Hebrews 3:16-19) God has given us his word so we can learn through diligent study how to avoid being “…tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine….” (Ephesians 4:11-14)

It is through this word that our faith grows. (Romans 10:17)

There is nothing like extensive study of the knowledge in God’s word

In our age of instant gratification, we have a hard time waiting. We hate having to put a great deal of effort into anything. This has sadly gotten into our churches and caused Christians to pass on serious or extended Bible reading. We have been tricked into believing that Google will give us all the answers on demand.

God expects a bit more effort than that. To get to that promised rest, we have to stay on top the knowledge he wants us to have. God’s word has a way of laying us open and exposing the blemishes that would cause his rejection of us. (Hebrews 4:11-13)

I put this site together as a way to help build a daily habit of Bible reading and study. Whether it be a few minutes or an hour or more, I want us all in the word daily…

BUT!

We need even more. We need to set time aside for an occasional extensive reading. Nothing gets you plugged into what a book of the Bible is trying to teach you than to read it in one sitting.

Our group’s Biblepalooza is one way of doing that. If you don’t have access to something like that, find another way. Do it with your family. Do it by yourself. Just do it.

The more you do, though, the more you want.

If you have to, start with Jude, and work backwards through the books. (In case you never noticed, the epistles are arranged longest to shortest) Once you get the thrill of reading a complete book, you will be ready for the longer ones.

Friends, Be Diligent. (2 Timothy 2:15)

Daily Bible reading for July 26

Song 4:9-5:1
Judges 5
Jeremiah 21
Hebrews 3:7-4:13