Not Reading? Then You Are Lost!

Not Reading? Then you are lost! 8-7-31 Kelly Durant

Psalm 119:105Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

2. You have often heard it said that the Bible is like a map, and if you use it, you will know from where you started, and to where you need to go to navigate in life. In life all people must study from the books of their professions. For example, how would you feel if a flight attendant said, “I never studied the flight attendant manual, I just know how to wing it?!” People who do not read and get the information needed are in danger and they also can put others in danger! Reading the right things, the things of God, is what matters!

Most of us are lazy to read! For example, we will buy a new desk from IKEA that has 50 screws and 2 dozen boards and we start putting it together like we have done it before but then we get lost, so what do we do then? We go dig the instructions out of the trash! For any sort of guide in life you must have the patience to read, absorb, and then practice because if not, nothing will fit together!

3. The first book in life to read and study and restudy is the Bible! The Bible has proven to educate in abstract thinking and make wiser any reader on all matters concerning most everything! Psalm 19:7 ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.’ Most importantly, it is God’s truth given to us documenting His communications through his chosen ones and it educates us on how to live, what to believe and follow. The written Word confirms to the reader that eternal life can be obtained through Jesus! Eternal life we would never have known about had we not read it and seen it in practice by other Christians!

How many of you here read the Bible daily? You could read just 20 minutes a day and read the entire Bible in one year! We can get one of those reading plans if you want one. Actually, the Bible is like the meat and bread but you also need a salad and dessert. I know I was lost in many parts of the Bible until I got a historical contextual commentary: my first one was Halley’s Handbook. That really helped me mentally organize what happened when and where, and opened my eyes to the reasons why certain events happened as they did with God’s intervention. Who has a concordance or commentary of some kind for your study?

4. Take note on becoming wise from reading God’s law: how many of you are a bit worried about the Zika pandemic? The Lord protects us just as in Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Consider this, did you know in the Dark Ages when the Bubonic Plague spread that the Jews were accused of spreading it? Why? Because few of them died from it so people thought they had secret knowledge to send curses and control it!? But why did they not get sick as others? Anyone have a guess? It was because of something simple, they washed their hands and the regular people did not!

Exodus 30:21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

5. With science today we can affirm Kosher mandates from the Pentateuch are practices that protects everyone’s health, wealth, and spirit from outside attacks. So reading the Bible will enrich the reader with practical applications, apart from it being the inspired God breathed truth which divinely works wonders.

Touching on reading the Bible as the inspired Word of God (not just for information), how do we explain that millions have read from it and millions of people have been inexplicably touched and they even cry when reading it? Have you ever cried reading it? I have! How do words from a book totally change a person’s appetites, goals, and passions in life? The only explanation is it is divine! There is no book like this one!

Nehemiah 8:9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, “This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.” What is the context here? The people had been living many years without hearing God’s word and when it was read it touched them so much they wept! I long for that day, to see people come to God with total sincerity, to read and hear the Word, and react profoundly to it!