May 7, 2005
Earlier this week I started an article that would include my Top 10 home library picks. Our webpages have (or are in the process of having) many recommendations for resources for the Christian family. Yet, in the making of books there is no end. All is vanity. Books are one of the best pursuits man can make on earth – far more beneficial than most of the other things this world has to offer, and yet it is still vanity.
Only one thing is needful. Yet the American Church has strayed so far from it. In becoming people of many books, we are no longer a people of THE Book. We may read devotionals ABOUT the Bible, or story books of Bible stories – or even watch them, or somewhat a remake of them, on video. We may follow along with a few verses (paraphrased beyond recognition) on an overhead screen on Sunday and maybe, Wednesday. But by and large, American Christians are pretty Biblically illiterate.
Though I will probably eventually write the Top 10 list, and we do continue to utilize other resources along side the Bible for educating our children, today I want to just encourage you to get into the Word. Just the Word. No books about the Bible or Biblical ideas. Not even “Bible study” books. But just the Bible alone. Not men’s parphrases or “dynamic equivelents”. Just the literal Word of God (translated into English, if you don’t read Hebrew/ Greek. 🙂
Just read it. Read it as you would any other book, chapter by chapter, beginning to end. Read it slow enough to catch what it is saying – even if you think you’ve “heard that all before”. Think about what you are reading. This is important stuff! God wrote this just to send a message of love to YOU! Think about it as a whole message. If you don’t understand something or have a question, write it down. There’s a good chance it will be clarified/ answered later in the Book. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Along with that – and even better, ask the Author what He meant. If you have entered into covenant relationship with God, He is your Father and He just loves to hear from you and talk to you and has even given you of Himself to be your Teacher, the Holy Spirit lives in you to reveal God and His Word to you.
Get to know God for yourself, through His Word and prayer alone. Not about, and through, someone else’s relationship with Him. Your life will be transformed by Sola Scriptura.
