“This is the best book you’ll ever read! You will love it!” my friend said as she handed me the latest novel on the top ten best-seller list. So I turned to page 59 and read the second paragraph—five times.
“You’ve got to go see this movie! It’s soooooo good!” she said to me on another occasion. So I went but arrived late and only saw the last ten minutes.
“This puzzle is awesome! See how long it takes you to put it together!” Bless my friend’s heart. She is so kind and thoughtful, but I just don’t take her seriously. She handed me a thousand piece puzzle of a beautiful and tranquil log cabin in the mountains scene on the box lid. I opened the box, counted out forty pieces and tried to interlock them. Needless to say, nothing fit, and I certainly did not see the completed picture on my breakfast table.
Something essentially important is missing here. Would I really know the entire story of a great work of fiction by only reading one paragraph? Watching the last scene of a movie leaves me with more questions than fulfillment. And to expect to see the entire picture of a “beautiful and tranquil log cabin in the mountains scene” on my breakfast table after only working twenty minutes with forty pieces of a thousand piece puzzle, half-heartedly and unsuccessfully I might add, is just plain ludicrous.
Yet, isn’t this how we often times treat the Bible? We take someone else’s word that reading and knowing God’s Word will help, encourage, and teach us and give us direction, wisdom, and answers to life’s tough questions, but we don’t actually do it. We prefer to be spoon-fed once a week rather than take the time and put forth the effort to explore and feast on God’s Word on a daily basis. It’s so much easier that way.
Read the Bible through in a year? Are you kidding me? We just want to read the same Scriptures over and over, watch the last ten minutes repeatedly, and look at the same puzzle pieces forever. Meanwhile, our spirit is starving, and we’re missing out on learning God’s eternal plan for mankind as well as for me personally. Living life this way, I will never see and know God’s complete picture for my life. I will never truly know Him and experience the abundant life He so much wants to give me.
Is this where you are? Move. Come up with a plan to read God’s Word completely through for yourself. You did that one time already? Then do it again. Connections Second Edition can help you achieve your goal. To get your copy, click on the picture of Connections Second Edition.
“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 KJV). “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11 KJV). No one else can do this for me.