Why Should We Read The Bible?

Why should we read the Bible?

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Have you heard about the couple that sent their son off to college at Ohio State? When he left they gave him a Bible and told him to read it carefully, because it would be very helpful.

Well after a few weeks of school the son wrote home and told the parents that he needed a little money. So, the parents wrote the son and told him to read John 3:16. The son then wrote back, okay I read that, now what about the money? His parents wrote back, I know you are not telling the truth because between every page that has one of our favorite verses on it is a $100 bill.

See the bible may not be full of $100 bills, but it is full of treasures, so why do us as Christians not want to read it like we should?

So what is the Bible, and why is it important for us to read it.

First lets look at II Timothy 3:16-17

Well let’s see, the Bible claims to be the means that God has chosen to reach out to us in human language, reveal the essence of his relational heart, and relate the good news of his redemptive plan.

Man that is quite a statement isn’t it, but we can also look at the Bible in that way that Susie talked about in her children’s sermon a few weeks ago. She stated that the Bible is a whole library that we can take with us anywhere we go. It is 66 whole books, written by 40 different authors. It contains history, war stories, romances, miracles and many other stories.

Then we can look at the Bible in the way that I do, the way I believe that God wants us too. That we can look at the Bible as the instruction manual on how we become more Christ like each and everyday of our life. That the Bible is God’s love letters to us, and he wants us to know how much he loves and cares for us, and how much he truly wants us to be more like him.

Let me ask you something, how do you get to know God? Some of you may say by going to church and hearing about him, or others may say by what my friends and loved ones tell me about him. Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret. You will never truly know God, you will never truly know how much God loves you, and you will never truly know all that God has in store for you by learning about God in just that way.

Let’s take this for example:

If I stood up here week after week and told you about my father, about how great of a man he is, how much he would be willing to do for you, how much he would care for you. Then would you be able to truly love him like a father if you didn’t get to know him yourself. Well of course not, that would be impossible for you to love someone just because I love them.

Well see that is what I do each and every week, I tell you about how great my father is, my heavenly father. See, the same thing goes for God as it does for the example I just gave you. If you truly want to know God, on a one on one level, if you truly want to have that very special relationship with him, then you need to get to know him personally. There is only one way to do that, and that is reading what he has provided us with, and that is the Bible.

The Bible is very important to us if we want to truly be Christians.

Do you know what two of the greatest president’s said about the Bible?

George Washington said, “It is impossible to righteously govern the world without the Bible as your guide, because without it we would be without God.”

Ronald Reagan said, “Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that we face today-if we will only read and believe.”

So how many of you in here tonight have a Bible in your home? How many of you have more than one Bible in your home? I would say that probably all of you have at least one Bible in your home, because did you know that 98% of all homes in the United States have at least one Bible in them. See, even though the Bible is and has been the best selling book in the world for quite sometime, it is also the most likely book in the world to get left on the shelf.