Reading the Bible in 2006

 

 

 

Introduction:

  1. You will amount to nothing in life before God and men, unless you crave and devour His word.
  2. The Bible is a spiritual book from a spiritual Author. If you are born again, you need spiritual food.
  3. If man is to live by every word of God (Luke 4:4), then you must read its words to have a life!
  4. Israel rejoiced to hear the words of God read and explained to them for hours (Nehemiah 8:1-12).
  5. Job considered the words of God more important than his necessary food (Job 23:11-12). Do you?
  6. David, the temple-building man after God’s own heart, loved the word of God very much (Psalm 119:9,11,14,18,24,35,40,46,47,48,54,62,72,77,92,97,103,111,113,119,127,129,131,140,159,162,174).
  7. Every father is bound before God to teach his children the Bible (Deut 6:4-9; Psalm 78:1-8; Eph 6:4).
  8. There is only one way to be an Elihu in a world of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Job 32:8). Read!

 

The Bible Builds Faith: Romans 10:17; 15:4.

 

The Bible Bears Fruit: Colossians 1:4-6; I Thessalonians 2:13.

 

The Bible Promotes Growth: I Peter 2:1-3; James 1:21.

 

The Bible Brings Contentment: Psalm 19:10; Psalm 119:111.

 

The Bible Teaches Truth: Psalm 119:142,151; John 17:17.

 

The Bible Gives Wisdom: Psalm 19:7; 119:98-100,105,130.

 

The Bible Provides Answers: Proverbs 22:17-21; Psalm 119:46,172.

 

The Bible Pays Rewards: Psalm 19:11; James 1:25.

 

The Bible Brings Prosperity: Joshua 1:7-8; Psalm 1:1-3; Proverbs 8:12-21.

 

The Bible Reveals Christ: John 5:39; II Timothy 3:15.

 

Conclusion:

  1. I have prepared a Bible reading schedule for 2006 of one chapter a day, taking a survey of the Bible.
    1. Of course, you are encouraged to read more than one chapter, but let us make this our minimum.
    2. My father will email you a page daily with helps for comprehension, meditation, and application.
  2. I will continue to send a daily proverb and commentary, even after we have completed the book.
  3. Sometime during 2006 I will begin a work entitled “Problem Texts,” which will deal with hard texts.
  4. Our quizzers are finishing Matthew’s gospel, and we can follow them through Hebrews and Peter.
  5. I may start a book-of-the-month program to encourage young men and others to read good books.
  6. Your life is racing away, and there is only one way to slow it down – read the Bible carefully today!

For Further Study:

  1. Devotional Outline: “Life Is Like a Maze,” shows the important value of Scripture for success in this life.
  2. Sermon Outline: “Thus Saith the Lord,” exalts the Bible as final authority for questions and controversies.
  3. Sermon Outline: “A Preaching Service,” shows a congregation with the right response to the Word of God.
  4. Sermon Outline: “The Worst Contradiction in the Bible,” shows how to find hidden wisdom in Scripture.
  5. Sermon Outline: “Why I Believe the Bible,” proves from many directions that God Himself wrote the Bible.
  6. Sermon Outline: “Every Word of God,” shows how Jesus and the apostles argued from individual words.
  7. Sermon Outline: “Do We Need Teachers?” refutes the heresy that the Spirit alone is necessary for learning.
  8. Sermon Outline: “Noble Hearers,” describes the various traits of godly hearers who will learn the truth.

Consider a Few Testimonies of Famous Men

John Adams: “The Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen. So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.”

 

Daniel Webster: “I have read it through many times. I now make a practice of going through it once a year. It is a book of all others for lawyers as well as divines. I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and rules of conduct. If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”

 

Benjamin Franklin: “Young man, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with, and a firm belief in, the Holy Scriptures. This is your certain interest.

 

Andrew Jackson: “It is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

 

Queen Victoria: when explaining the glory of Great Britain to an ambassador sent by an inquiring prince, said, “Tell the prince that this (a Bible) is the secret of England’s greatness.”

 

Abraham Lincoln: “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man. I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this book.”

 

Theodore Roosevelt: “Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible.”

 

Calvin Coolidge: “The foundations of our society and of our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible, that it would be difficult to support them, if faith in these teachings should cease to be practically universal in our country.”

 

Woodrow Wilson: “A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this (a knowledge of the Bible).”

 

Robert E. Lee: “The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others in my eyes are of minor importance, and which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength.”

 

General John J. Pershing: “I am glad to see that every man in the army is to have a Testament. Its teachings will fortify us for our great task.”

 

William E. Gladstone: “I have known ninety-five of the world’s great men in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. The Bible is stamped with a Specialty of Origin, and an immeasurable distance separates it from all competitors.”

 

George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

 

John Ruskin: “Whatever merit there is in anything that I have written is simply due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read me a part of the Bible and daily made me learn a part of it by heart.”

 

Charles A. Dana: “The grand old Book still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves are turned and pondered, the more it will sustain and illustrate the pages of the Sacred Word.”

 

Patrick Henry: “The Bible is worth all other books which have every been printed.”