Something is missing
You walk into a church and most people don't have a bible and there are no bibles in the pews. You listen to preachers speak and there is little, if any Scripture taught.
You ask pastors and parishioners alike and more often than not they have never read the Scriptures through even once from cover to cover. I'm not just speaking of new Christians who haven't had the opportunity, I mean lifers, people who have been in church their entire life.
There is something very seriously wrong with that picture. Most of us, myself included could use at least a little more time in the scriptures on a daily basis. For the majority of people it will be a brand new experience. For some it will be a daily tune up.
The lack of biblical teaching in congregational settings is even more serious. Our reading of the Scriptures goes back into Jewish history. At the meetings in synagogues the Law and the Prophets were read in depth and with reverence.
The early Christian church continued the practice and added what would come to be called the "New Testament" as it became available. Reading God's word was a central focus of gathering together and worshipping. The singing of the Psalms was also encouraged.
Since many in the days of the early church had no access to a private copy of the Scripture, the meeting was the only place they could hear them. Ironically now that the scriptures are readily available to most people, we neither read them at home nor in our meetings.
There is something powerful about hearing the Scriptures proclaimed out loud. That is even truer when we can follow along in our own Bibles.
We're called to the public reading of the Scriptures.
1 Timothy 4:13 NIV
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
We're called to the Psalms.
Ephesians 5:18-20 NIV
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:16 NIV
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Those verses don't mean we only do the Psalms. They do make a point though that the Scriptures should be part of our worship time together.
We can't afford the luxury though of waiting to hear the whole Bible in church. There are sixty-six books in the Bible (more if you are of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox faiths). That means if the preacher read an entire book of the Bible every Sunday it would take more than a year to read the Scriptures through. Not too many congregations would sit through a reading of Jeremiah, or the Psalms in a single setting. Some congregations would have a hard time sitting through 3 John at a go.
By one count there are 1189 chapters in the Bible. That means it would take almost 23 years of Sundays if the preacher did a chapter a week. Exposition of a chapter a week is a long sermon and perhaps not realistic, but if we assumed that a preacher could do it, how many of us can claim to have attended the same church for 23 years and never missed a Sunday? I'm certain there are some but only a relative few.
So what if the preacher read a verse a week? That sounds more manageable. The count I mentioned earlier says there are 31,103 verses in the Bible. That would be 598 years if a single verse was done every week. None of us will live that long.
To get to know God's Word more fully, we need to read and preach it more from the pulpit, but we also need to take ownership and begin to read it ourselves. There are many Bible reading plans that will easily take you from cover to cover in the Scriptures in about 15 minutes a day for a year. That means if the preacher did a chapter a week and you did your daily reading you would have read/heard the Scriptures 24 times in the time it takes to rush through them once from the pulpit. How much better would you know your Bible if that were the case?
It doesn't take much to read your Bible. It is God's special revelation to you. It was written in three languages over 1500 years by 40 people inspired by God. It has been preserved by the blood of countless martyrs. Don't you think you should devote a little time to it yourself?
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed,
Pastor Kevin Corbin
You walk into a church and most people don't have a bible and there are no bibles in the pews. You listen to preachers speak and there is little, if any Scripture taught.
You ask pastors and parishioners alike and more often than not they have never read the Scriptures through even once from cover to cover. I'm not just speaking of new Christians who haven't had the opportunity, I mean lifers, people who have been in church their entire life.
There is something very seriously wrong with that picture. Most of us, myself included could use at least a little more time in the scriptures on a daily basis. For the majority of people it will be a brand new experience. For some it will be a daily tune up.
The lack of biblical teaching in congregational settings is even more serious. Our reading of the Scriptures goes back into Jewish history. At the meetings in synagogues the Law and the Prophets were read in depth and with reverence.
The early Christian church continued the practice and added what would come to be called the "New Testament" as it became available. Reading God's word was a central focus of gathering together and worshipping. The singing of the Psalms was also encouraged.
Since many in the days of the early church had no access to a private copy of the Scripture, the meeting was the only place they could hear them. Ironically now that the scriptures are readily available to most people, we neither read them at home nor in our meetings.
There is something powerful about hearing the Scriptures proclaimed out loud. That is even truer when we can follow along in our own Bibles.
We're called to the public reading of the Scriptures.
1 Timothy 4:13 NIV
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
We're called to the Psalms.
Ephesians 5:18-20 NIV
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:16 NIV
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Those verses don't mean we only do the Psalms. They do make a point though that the Scriptures should be part of our worship time together.
We can't afford the luxury though of waiting to hear the whole Bible in church. There are sixty-six books in the Bible (more if you are of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox faiths). That means if the preacher read an entire book of the Bible every Sunday it would take more than a year to read the Scriptures through. Not too many congregations would sit through a reading of Jeremiah, or the Psalms in a single setting. Some congregations would have a hard time sitting through 3 John at a go.
By one count there are 1189 chapters in the Bible. That means it would take almost 23 years of Sundays if the preacher did a chapter a week. Exposition of a chapter a week is a long sermon and perhaps not realistic, but if we assumed that a preacher could do it, how many of us can claim to have attended the same church for 23 years and never missed a Sunday? I'm certain there are some but only a relative few.
So what if the preacher read a verse a week? That sounds more manageable. The count I mentioned earlier says there are 31,103 verses in the Bible. That would be 598 years if a single verse was done every week. None of us will live that long.
To get to know God's Word more fully, we need to read and preach it more from the pulpit, but we also need to take ownership and begin to read it ourselves. There are many Bible reading plans that will easily take you from cover to cover in the Scriptures in about 15 minutes a day for a year. That means if the preacher did a chapter a week and you did your daily reading you would have read/heard the Scriptures 24 times in the time it takes to rush through them once from the pulpit. How much better would you know your Bible if that were the case?
It doesn't take much to read your Bible. It is God's special revelation to you. It was written in three languages over 1500 years by 40 people inspired by God. It has been preserved by the blood of countless martyrs. Don't you think you should devote a little time to it yourself?
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed,
Pastor Kevin Corbin
No comments:
Post a Comment